Rise of the Marauders
by trueroyalblue
Summary: Sirius Black wanted to be put in Gryffindor, and so he got it. What he wasn't prepared for was befriending James, Remus, and Peter, and getting into all sorts of trouble at the school. Hogwarts teachers are in for a heck of a year! *FULL SUMMARY INSIDE*
1. A Different Kind of Feast

**-Rise of the Marauders-**

Sirius Black wanted to be put in Gryffindor, and so he got it. However, one thing he wasn't prepared for was befriending James Potter, Remus Lupin, and (unfotunately) Peter Pettigrew. Let's not forget getting into all sorts of trouble at the school (involving girls, pranks on an unfortunate greasy-haired Slytherin and evil Black cousins, a werewolf, and more things that are better left unsaid. Hogwarts and its teachers are in for a heck of a year as the four boys begin their journey through their seven-year course at the school of witchcraft and wizardry!

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Hi everyone! This is my first crack at this kind of thing, so please be gentle (but not too gentle). I hope that everyone likes it! I will NOT accept flames, but I WILL accept constructive criticism.

Disclaimer: Do you honestly think I own Harry Potter? Get real. No, I don't own it.

* * *

Eleven-year-old Sirius Black stared out of the Hogwarts Express window, his nervous stomach churning and wondering what house he'd be put in, and wondering what would happen to him at Hogwarts. Sirius dared to hope he'd make great friends and be cool- it was what every young kid really wanted to be when they were shipped off to school.

He felt a bit lonely; he didn't have anyone to talk to- about anything, really. As bad as it might've sounded, it was still the truth.

For the Sorting, he wanted to be placed in Gryffindor -not Slytherin- like his entire family was placed in. Except for his Uncle Alfred, come to think of it... He wanted to be different- even if everyone in his family thought he was 'evil' like they were. Sirius felt like he didn't have a choice when his parents told him to "believe this" and "believe that", and some other things.

He didn't think it'd be nearly as scary as he had heard some of the people on the Express told him. Sirius had seen how some first years were emotionally treating being placed in a house- and had never been happier he wasn't the emotional type.

Sirius wondered how badly his family would take it if he wasn't in Slytherin (or even Ravenclaw). He hoped they wouldn't hate him too much. He remembered them talking about his Uncle Alfred once, and he shuddered in horror as he remembered some of the things his parents said about him- particularly his dad.

Sirius jumped, startled, as someone knocked on the door to the compartment.

"Hey. Can I stay here? There's no other place on the train to stay," a boy with hazel eyes, messy black hair, and round glasses asked.

He seemed to be about his age- maybe he'd be friendly. He didn't look mean, anyways.

"Um, sure," he replied, uncertainly.

The boy took the seat opposite of himself, easily relaxing into the seat.

"What house do you want to be in?" The boy asked, curiously.

"Um, I want to be in Gryffindor, but my entire family has been in Slytherin, so I guess I'll be placed there. I would die if I was placed in Slytherin, though. What about you?"

"Gryffindor, definitely. I wouldn't be able to stand the school if I wasn't in that house. Unlike you, my entire family has been placed in Gryffindor. I'm terrified I might be placed in some other house," he said, shuddering at the mere thought of it.

"Are you going to try out for Quidditch next year?" Sirius asked him, curiously.

"Oh yeah! I'm going to try for Seeker. Doesn't it kill you that we have to wait a whole year before we can try out?" the boy asked.

"I know! They should at least let the talented first years do it- especially if we try out like everyone else! It's REALLY unfair," he agreed.

"What position would you try out for?"

"I'd try for Beater. It looks like so much fun- and I get to beat people up! I tried to practice over the summer whenever I could," _Which wasn't a lot, because I wasn't able to practice in case the Muggles saw, _he thought to himself, sadly.

"Cool! So did I!" the boy exclaimed, beaming. "Oh, by the way, I'm James Potter, you?"

"Sirius Black," Sirius answered, slightly nervous about how James would take it.

James' eyes widened, and he jumped as he recognized the name, Black.

"Erm, is that a problem?" Sirius asked, a little nervously. Fidgeting in his seat awkwardly, he knew that the Potters were 'blood traitors' in his parent's book. And what entered his 'parent's book' was never to be questioned- especially by their children. "Blood traitors" hated people like his family, and even if he DID want James to be his friend... if James couldn't accept him for being a Black, then the kid wasn't worth his time.

"Oh, no. I didn't mean it like that. I was just surprised, that's all. My dad told me ALL about the Black family, and you just seemed so nice and… un-Blackish, that's all. I wasn't expecting it," James said, quickly but sincerely.

"Oh, okay then," Sirius said, glad that James didn't care about that stuff like all the adults seemed to.

"Let's go explore!" James exclaimed suddenly, and pulling Sirius by the sleeve, James dragged him all over the Hogwarts Express. They poked their heads into compartment doors, laughing at the surpised look on the students' faces when they popped their heads in unexpectedly. Sirius didn't have to pretend to have fun; he truly was.

It was strange that I've only known this boy for a few hours, and it feels like we're already the best of friends, Sirius thought to himself as they interrupted a couple making out in a darkened compartment.

"Hey, who's in there?" he asked James, pointing to a door that seemed to be a bit more closed off and quieter than the others.

"I dunno. Let's go see. I hope it's another couple snogging- those ones are the better ones!" James replied, going towards it with a curious expression on his face.

They knocked first, in case anyone was changing. They had made that mistake once already, and had had to run all over the train until the teenage boy finally gave up throwing curses at them. The ones who were snogging usually didn't notice the knock until it was too late. When no one reacted from inside, they shoved it open.

To their surprise, there was a skinny boy with sandy blonde hair, who seemed to be entering his first year, too. The boy was reading a large, brown book that looked old.

The boy jumped when he saw them, and asked, "Er-what are you doing in here?"

"Well, exploring, of course!" James exclaimed, as if the boy had just asked the stupidest question in the world.

The boy looked at him quizzically. "Why?" he questioned.

This made James' mouth drop open in complete shock.

"Why? WHY?! It's our first year! The amazement of the new things will only last for one year! We have to… to… to... Sirius, take it from here!"

"Gee, thanks James," he said, dryly.

James grinned in a smirkish kind of way in response.

"Well, why?"

"Because… it's fun, greatly entertaining, and we wanted to see what the rest of the train was like! Besides, you can't just sit quietly READING for the entire train ride like you are!" Sirius explained, making it up on the spot- something James didn't seem capable of. James HAD covered it up nicely, though.

"What's your name?" James asked, abruptly.

"Um, Remus Lupin. Yours?" Remus asked in return, a little surprised.

"Well, I'm James, and this is my buddy, Sirius," James said, grinning at him. Sirius grinned back. "Do you want to come with us? You look awfully lonely here- all by yourself," James offered.

"You don't have anything better to do," Sirius pointed out, trying to be reasonable for once in his life.

"Yeah. You might as well have some fun… Remmy," James agreed, smiling mischievously at the nickname.

Remus jumped at the nickname, and it honestly looked like he wanted to come with them, but something (or someone) was stopping him from doing just that.

"I really shouldn't…." he said, trailing off.

"Come on, Remmy! You know you want to," Sirius exclaimed, seeing that Remus' resolve was weaking a little bit.

"If you insist," Remus muttered, yawning a bit. The boy hesitantly got out of his seat, and followed him and James out of his compartment.

"Oh, we insist," he said, smirking at James, who smirked right back at him.

On their way back to their own compartment, he, James, and Remus came across some other students- in Slytherin. He recognized them as Lucius Malfoy, Bella and Narcissa Black, and some others… probably some other Slytherins or soon-to-be-Slytherins.

They were picking on this much smaller boy Sirius didn't recognize, but immediately felt sorry for (he'd probably be in Hufflepuff). Seeing what they were doing to the poor kid, that made him think Bella was going easy on him when she was at his house, and that was saying something!

He saw James' eyes light up with an angry fire to them. Before Sirius could say anything, James stormed up to Lucius and angrily exclaimed, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Well, we're betting to see who can make shrimpy over here cry first, puny first year," Lucius answered, slyly. Lucius slapped 'shrimpy' on the face (hard) for effect. 'Shrimpy' (he didn't know the kid's real name) flinched in response.

"Do you know who those people are?" Remus asked, curiously and looking at him as he spoke.

"Unfortunately, yes, I do. The blonde male is Lucius Malfoy, the blonde female is Narcissa Black, and the other female is Bellatrix Black. All of whom will make you strongly wish you hadn't met them after you have had the unfortunancy of ever meeting them... if that makes any sense at all. However, I don't know who the others are," he paused for a moment trying to recognize any of them. He couldn't- not right now, under these circumstances. "I probably could, but I'd need time," he replied.

"Oh. Come on, Sirius. Let's go help him," Remus sighed tiredly, and went over to help James. Sirius followed, hoping he could back up Remus and James- and get a little action for himself.

Taking a deep breath, Sirius yelled, "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" He pointed his want out at Lucius. One of Lucius' cronies had Remus pinned against the wall, and James was in a deep wand fight with Bellatrix and Narcissa, who surprisingly made a good fighting match together.

Lucius did the same, smirking at Sirius, as if inviting him to make the first move. Some of the other students in the train were starting to stare out of the windows at the scene.

He already knew a little magic, although most of it was Dark Magic his father had tried to teach him before school started. He had a sinking feeling Lucius knew more Dark Magic, and wouldn't be afraid to use it on him. However, just as he was about to conjure up the horrid (well, it'd be horrid for Malfoy) spell he had in mind for Malfoy, an angry voice yelled,

"ALRIGHT, BREAK IT UP, EVERYONE!" a prefect ordered, shoving into the growing crowd. It didn't help the matters, though.

"I SAID, BREAK IT UP!!" the prefect yelled, a little louder this time when no one listened.

"That'll do, Cynthia," someone- who had to be the Head Boy- said in an eerily soft voice. Glancing at his robe, he realized the Head Boy belonged in Slytherin. Oh, shit.

Surprisingly, instead of joining in the fight like he had anticipated, the Slytherin head exclaimed,

"Alright. Stop this fighting at once!" the Head Boy easily separated Remus and James from Lucius' minions, rescued the one boy they were picking on from the pack of Slytherins and to-be Slytherins, and sort of tossed him over to James and Remus, who caught him.

Lucius had a devilishly evil look to him, and Sirius tried to make himself look the same -if not scarier- in response.

Just as Lucius was about to hurl a curse at him (Leave it to Malfoy to ignore the fact the fight had already broken up), the Head Boy yelled, "Expelliarmus!" knocking Lucius' wand out of his hand, and sent it flying into the Head Boy's hand.

"Now, that's enough drama for one day. I won't take away house points, since you haven't been sorted yet, but keep this in mind: Next time this happens, I won't hesitate to punish you," the Head Boy warned, giving everyone in the room a cold stare.

"Now go back to your compartments, and stay away from each other!" he ordered, furiously shoving his way past the group.

"You can't tell me what to do," Lucius muttered, as he snatched his wand from the Head Boy's hand on his own way out.

"I'm telling your dad," Bellatrix threatened in a sing-song kind of way, while grinning maliciously at the same time. Narcissa nodded, her expression copying Bellatrix's. Sirius lunged at Bellatrix, but Remus somehow managed to hold him from mauling his cousin. He should probably thank him later...

"You okay?" Remus asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I'll be fine," he responded, still glaring after Bellatrix and Narcissa as they followed Lucius like little female toys, laughing maniacally.

"Come on, Sirius. They're not worth our time," James muttered, glaring darkly in Malfoys direction. When they were out of sight, they decided to go back to his and James' compartment.

The small boy they had stuck up for followed them all the way to their compartment. When they went through the door and sat down, and he said, looking scared, "Um, thanks for sticking up for me. I uh… really appreciate it... and that was the first time someone stood up for me,"

"No problem," James responded, smiling lightly. The boy still stayed there, swaying in rhythm to the train, uncertain about what to do.

"Care to have a seat?" Remus invited, guessing that was what the boy wanted to do.

The boy looked at him and James questioningly- silently asking them if it was okay- who both nodded encouragingly.

"Okay," he said, and nervously sat down beside Remus.

They talked about nothing really; the small boy turned out to be Peter Pettigrew, who wanted to be in Gryffindor, but expected to be Hufflepuff. Remus wanted to be in Gryffindor, but would take Ravenclaw, too. And after seeing the behavior of how Slytherins acted, neither of the two wanted Slytherin, which was to be expected.

He and James told them that they would both be in Gryffindor, and Sirius decided to leave out the part about him being a Black- even if the other two probably didn't know about that stuff yet.

He and James seemed to be the only ones interested in Quidditch. Peter expressed some interest in it after they explained it to him, but not a lot. He didn't look like the Quidditch-playing type, anyways. Or any sports-type from the looks of it.

Remus said he didn't like or play that much sports- except he said he liked watching (and sometimes playing) Muggle baseball- whatever that was. Remus told them he was more into reading books and studying- which Sirius didn't doubt in the least. He could've been a good Quidditch player if he put the time into it, though.

Their conversations (this time they were arguing about the Hogwarts uniform, and whether it was dorky or not. Which admittedly, was a rather stupid conversation to begin with) were RUDELY interrupted when a red-headed first year girl and greasy, black haired first year boy entered their compartment. They didn't stay long because they made fun of and teased the pair until they drove the red head and greasy crazy with annoyance until they left.

James glanced at the red-headed girl on the way out. "Hey! What's your name?" he asked her, curiously.

The girl glared at him over her shoulder, but replied shortly, "Lily Evans, you?"

"James Potter," he said, staring at her wide-eyed.

The girl -who had to be Muggleborn- nodded at him, unfazed by his sudden question or his unnerving staring, and followed the boy out of their compartment with her head held high.

Sirius raised his eyebrows at James, who shrugged, looking at his feet. Frowning, he wondered why James seemed so... shy and... distant... all of a sudden.

The rest of the ride to Hogwarts went smoothly and they still talked about unimportant stuff they'd never remember the next day. However, he was starting to get impatient to see Hogwarts and a little anxious about the sorting.

After what seemed like hours, the Hogwarts Express finally arrived at Hogwarts. Students filed out, and started to get in these carriges pulled by... nothing? He began to follow them, but a girl stopped him and said, "No, you can't go this way until next year. You have to go with Hagrid across the lake," and she pointed kindly towards where the other first years were gathering.

His mouth formed a small 'O' as he nodded at her and went to stand by his friends after he found them. Mere seconds later, he heard a deep voice yell really loudly, "FIRS' YEARS OVER HERE! FIRS' YEARS COME OVER HERE!!"

"You've got to be kidding me," he heard Peter mutter. Glancing at him, Sirius saw Peter's jaw drop. A little nervous, Sirius looked up to see that the voice belonged to... a HUGE giant!! His eyes widened in shock, and he took a couple steps back himself. He saw some other people doing the same thing, and he was a little bit glad he wasn't the only one who was shocked.

"Whoa!" he muttered, in pure amazement. Apparently, this was the 'Night of Unexpected Wonders'.

"Well, ger' in the boats, you firs' years! I'm Rubeus Hagrid, by the way," Hagrid said. At least the giant seemed friendly.

Looking at each other, they waited until the first boat was filled, and got in another. Instantly, the boats started moving... without oars! Glancing at James, who looked just as surprised as he did, shrugged and said,

"I'm guessing this won't be the end of the surprises today,"

He nodded in aggreement and said, "The Night of Unexpected Wonders,"

"Nice! I like the sound of that!" James beamed, and high-fived him.

He was facing the Hogwarts Express earlier, so when he turned around to face the castle,he gasped in amazement at his first sight of it. as he turned his attention to the castle- for the first time that night. It was beautiful, complete with turrets and lit up windows and… everything! It was... magical and glorious in every meaning possible!

"Are we really going to live in there for the next seven years?" he breathed, mesmerized by the elegance and majesticness of the castle.

"Yes we are, dummy," James said, grinning at him. But his eyes were wide with wonder all the same.

The boats soon crossed the lake, where they were met with an... uptight-looking woman.

"Hello, first years. My name is Professor McGonagall. I am the deputy headmistress at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore is the headmaster. I am to lead you to the Great Hall, where you will be sorted," she said, curtly.

Professor McGonagall led them to an entrance that was probably opened to the Great Hall.

"I expect all of you to be on your best behavior to tonight," she said, and explained a few other things, like house points, and what would happen if you disobeyed the school rules and so forth. Sirius waited, anxiously shifting from one foot to the other. He REALLY had to go now!

Suddenly, the doors to the Great Hall opened, and Professor McGonagall led them to the front of the room. There were four long and narrow tables where the older students were sitting and talking. Up at the front, there was another long and narrow table where all of the teachers sat. In the center of it all sat an kind-looking old man, who had to be Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster.

Below him was a black hat, on top of a stool. Then, against all of his previous beliefs that hats couldn't talk, the hat opened its mouth, and started to sing!

Sirius didn't pay much attention to it, mainly because he was starting to get anxious about the sorting. Maybe the pee. Probably both. _'What if I'm placed in __Slytherin? My life will be a living Hell,'_

Professor McGonagall began reading names off of a list.

"Aubrer, Bethany!"

The girl had blonde hair, and she timidly walked up to the hat, and placed it on her head.

"RAVENCLAW!"

One of the tables cheered.

"Azayla, Celina!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Andromeda, Black!"

Andromeda went up the the hat, and after a while, it yelled,

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Bellatrix!" Even the usually haughty and confident Bellatrix looked a little timid as she walked up to the hat. It was barely on for a few seconds before the hat yelled,

"SLYTHERIN!"

Narcissa high-fived Bellatrix and Andromeda, and they high-fived back, grinning at their accomplishment of being placed in Slytherin.

A table, which Sirius took to be the Slytherin's spot, was going crazy with cheering.

"Black, Sirius!"

Remus glanced at him, his eyes widening as he realized that he was related to the people who they had gotten into a fight with on the train.

Trying to look cool, uncaring, and nonchalant, he took a deep breath and walked up to the hat, putting it on.

_"Hmmm. Now let's see here. Another Black, eh? Where to put you, where to put you... you do have a lot of potential in Slytherin. Yes, Slytherin would be a very good place for you,"_

_"Um," he thought, uncertainly._ _"I uh, don't think I want to be in Slytherin,"_

_"You don't?" the hat asked, sounding surprised. "But you could be great in Slytherin, you would have glory, power, and riches beyond your wildest dreams. Isn't that what you want?"_

_That DID sound good to Sirius, but he was reminded of Bella and Cissy, and remembered how much he wanted to be in Gryffindor with James- and he had no doubt James would make Gryffindor._

_"I want to be in Gryffindor!" Sirius thought, hard. "I don't want to be with my family in Slytherin!"_

_"Are you sure? Your path in Gryffindor would be hard- much harder than what it would be in Slytherin... but I can see you'll have an exciting life awaiting you if you choose Gryffindor," the hat warned._

_Wondering how the hat could see that, Sirius was getting sick of the hat trying to put him in Slytherin, _

_"I want Gryffindor! Put me in Gryffindor, you stupid hat! GRYFFINDOR!!" he screamed in his head._

_"Fine, if that is your choice," the hat said, curtly. Sirius wondered briefly if he had offended the hat before he realized he didn't care about hurting the feelings of a stupid, talking hat._

Mere seconds later, the hat yelled,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Happily, he took off the hat. The room was silent in shock at a Black being sorted into a non-Slytherin house- much less the noble house of Gryffindor. Glancing up at the head table, he met the eyes of Dumbledore, who looked surprised, but maybe... proud, too?

Slowly, Dumbledore started clapping, and soon, everyone but the Slytherin table was cheering with the headmaster. Breaking into a grin that spread from ear to ear, Sirius found the Gryffindor table, and sat happily down in an empty spot a couple students made for him.

Looking over at the Slytherin table self-consciencely, he saw Bellatrix and Narcissa whispering conspiratorially to each other. Sirius shifted uneasily in his seat, but somehow managed to put them out of his mind for now. Turning his attention back to the sorting, it was now on to the E's.

"Evans, Lily!"

He noticed that James perked up as the red head girl from the train nervously -but looking brave- walked up to the hat and pulled it on over her head.

A few seconds later, it yelled,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He clapped along with the many other Gryffindor's.

His eyes followed her as she took a seat next to a curly, black haired girl, but his attention was soon back to the sorting, which was down to the L's now.

"Lucinde, Maria!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Lupin, Remus!"

He watched his friend as he moved up to the table and put the hat on.

'GRYFFINDOR!" it yelled.

Remus, looking relieved, went to the Gryffindor table, and took a seat next to Sirius.

"Nova, Paula!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Olseia, Nicholas!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

Peter timidly went up, and looking scared as hell, put the hat on. His seemed to take the longest yet. Vaguely, he wondered why that was, but that was none of his business. Finally, the hat yelled,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Looking even more relieved than Remus -if that was even possible- Peter shakily walked over to the Gryffindor table, and took a spot next to Remus.

"Potter, James!"

Unlike most of the others, James walked up there confidently, his face only betraying the slightest bit of nervousness. Within mere seconds, the hat shouted,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The entire Gryffindor table cheered, James went over to the table looking very ecstatic, and plopped himself down in a seat next to him.

"Well done, mate. I told you you'd be in Gryffindor," James said, beaming at him.

"You never said a thing about it!" Sirius exclaimed, indignantly.

James smirked. "That's what you think,"

They continued in a whispered argument until Remus exasperatedly said, "Will you two shut up?"

"No!"

"Hey guys, the sorting's over," Peter muttered, looking at the head table.

"Please remember that the Forbidden Forest is, as always, off limits. Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you to obey the rules at Hogwarts, and that if you should ever need to look at the rules, there's a copy in Mr. Filch's office. Now, please enjoy this glorious feast that our house elves have so generously prepared for us. Enjoy!" Dumbledore clapped his hands, and piles and piles of food appeared on every table.

There was a 'wow' of amazement from almost everyone in the room, before each person began 'stuffing their faces with food', as James put it.

"Have you tried the steak yet, Sirius?" James asked, hungrily digging into some on his plate.

"No, but I'll gladly take yours," he responded, grabbing one off of his friend's plate.

"Hey!" James exclaimed, trying to get it back.

"Too late!" and grinning, Sirius stuffed part of the stake in his mouth.

Sirius did his best to swallow it, but because he was laughing too hard, he spit it all out in James' face- who he was facing.

"HEY!" James shouted, trying to wipe some of the half-chewed stake off of his face with one hand while looking for something to throw at Sirius with his other.

Finally finding something, James grabbed it, and threw it directly at Sirius. He ducked, as did Remus and Peter, but it hit a fat fifth year boy smack-dab in the face.

"Oops," James said, sheepishly.

The fifth year boy, whose name turned out to be Hurbert (as they found out later), glared fiercely at James, before grabbing a bowl of soup and hurling it at him. He, James, Remus, and Peter all ducked, and it hit a girl on the side of her head. Screaming angrily, the girl hurled (what Sirius thought was) a bowl of soup at the boy, but everyone ducked, and it hit Hurbert's twin brother, Burt, on his chest.

Thinking it had came from the Slytherin table for some bizzaro reason, Bert threw a pie in the direction of that table. It was actually a pathetic throw, but it somehow managed to hit someone- Bellatrix Black- in fact. Sirius and James immediately burst into hysterical laughter. Furious, embarrassed, and thinking that it had been thrown by Sirius, Bellatrix scooped up some mashed potatoes, and threw some at Sirius.

He ducked, and it hit a Hufflepuff sixth year. Fuming, the Hufflepuff boy threw some broccoli at the Gryffindor table, hitting the most aggressive person on the Gryffindor quidditch team, Travis Sheate. Travis grabbed the first thing he could get his hands on, and with all the power of the beater skills he possessed, hurled it in the direction it came from.

Eventually, a food fight broke out, and all chaos and havoc quickly ensued. He and James grinned mischievously at each other before grabbing the first foods that they could get their hands on, and began chucking it at the Slytherin table.

Unexpectedly, James turned on him, and threw something- possibly edible- at him. Glaring at James, Sirius threw something- which once could have been mashed potatoes- right back at him. He snickered at James, who threw something at him. Eventually, they began dumping food on the other, until they were nearly completely covered with remains of different foods. Remus and Peter began laughing at them, so he and James threw food at them instead.

They ducked (Peter fell off the seat in the process), and it hit Hurbert, who was focused on throwing food on his brother.

Girls were and some other students were cowering under the tables- afraid for their lives. Getting sick of it, one of the teachers yelled, "IMMOBULUS!" all of the food immediately stopped going to wherever it would have landed, and froze in midair, which gave Sirius a slightly eerie feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Professor Dumbledore bellowed, "SILENCE!" Surprisingly, everyone in the room instantly became quiet.

"Never, in all of my years as Headmaster, have I had this kind of behavior from my students before. I am very disappointed in all of you. I will take away forty points from each house, and be thankful it isn't more. I don't want this kind of behavior to EVER happen again in my time as headmaster. I will not blame the culprit, as I believe all of you have subjected into doing it- as well as the culprit. I have never been more disappointed in my students before. Prefects, please lead the students in your houses to their rooms. I bid you all a good night, and I only hope that this kind of conduct never happens again. I'll see you all again in the morning, where you'll be given your schedules by your head of house as usual,"

"Come on, everyone. Let's go," a food-covered Gryffindor prefect sighed, and led every Gryffindor student out of the Great Hall, through some corridors and staircases, and finally stopped by a painting of a fat lady.

"_Hippogriff_," she said, and the painting swung open, to reveal a cozy Gryffindor common room.

Exchanging glances with James, he followed the rest of the Gryffindor's into the room. The male prefect led all of the boys to one of the staircases, and addressed the first year boys, "This is where you'll be sleeping. The bathroom will be in there, too. Good night,"

He, James, Remus, Peter, and another boy, Frank Longbottom, entered the dorm.

Staring at it in amazement, there were exactly five beds, and their trunks were directly below the end of the bed. There was a gentle fire going on one side of the room, another door, which he assumed was the bathroom, and on the other end, there were windows that looked out on the Hogwarts grounds.

"So, this is it, eh guys?" Sirius asked, slinging his arms around James and Remus' shoulders.

"Sure it is, Sirius. Now get your bloody arms offa me!" James exclaimed, throwing off his arm.

"Aren't you going to take a shower to get all of the food off of you?" Remus asked, slightly incredulous. He was already moving to his trunk and grabbing clean clothes out of it.

"Nah, I'll take mine in the morning. I don't quite feel like takin' a shower now," Sirius said, and James nodded in agreement.

"I'll take one after you, Remus," Frank said, who had a good bit of food on him, too.

"Okay,"

Meanwhile, he, James, and Peter (who was going to shower after Frank), played truth or dare, a Muggle game Peter taught them, and after that, played Exploding Snap and Rock, Paper, Scissors (another Muggle game Peter taught them). Then they played truth or dare until Remus yelled at them to get some sleep, as he was in his pajamas, and Frank was simply watching them goof around, as he had given up on sleep ages ago. Eventually, he joined in after he and James dragged him over to play.

"Fine," Peter muttered, listening to Remus, and he went to bed, after changing.

He and James, and Frank stayed up later, until three in the morning, as Remus told them the next day, glaring at them all the way.

Finally growing tired, he, James, and Frank went to bed, and they fell into an exhausted sleep, wondering nervously and excitedly what would happen the next day.

* * *

_So, what did you think? Please tell me in reviews! I know that the ending was kind of suckish, but, oh well. I don't mean to __make fun of Harry Potter and Co. in any way. I just imagined that's what would've happened if there was a real book about the __Marauders. Come on, it IS the Marauders, after all. They're practically legend because of all the pranks they did at __Hogwarts. :) Remember to review, and tell me if I should continue or not._


	2. Fantastical Day One!

So everyone, I hope you like this! Review! I haven't edited it yet, so I apologize in advance for any gramatical errors that might be here. And I WILL NOT update until I get at least THREE reviews! Come on, just click on that TINY LITTLE BOX in the corner that says REVIEW!

I don't own Harry Potter. (Are you kidding me?)

* * *

Rise of the Marauders 

-Chapter 2: First Day-

"Sirius. Sirius! SIRIUS!" someone shouted.

"Five more minutes," he mumbled, shoving (one of) his pillows over his head, and rolling over on his back, trying to block out the noise and get back to sleep.

"GET UP!" the person bellowed.

"Remus?" the person asked.

"Yeah, James?"

"Can I have some water?"

"Sure thing, James,"

The next thing Sirius knew, his head was soaking wet.

"JAMES, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" he roared.

Rolling clumsily out of bed, the sheets still wrapped around his legs, Sirius began chasing James blindly around the room. Finally, the sheets came off, and he caught James in a flying tackle, which sent them both diving straight towards the ground.

"Alright. Okay, you two. Break it up!" Remus shouted, and somehow managed to separate them.

"Sirius, go take a shower. You're filthy," Remus ordered. "James, you get Peter out of bed,"

"By any means necessary?"

"By any means necessary," Remus confirmed.

James looked like Christmas had come early this year. Looking over at Frank's empty bed, his face fell slightly.

"Darn. He's already up. Oh well. I'll get him tomorrow. Now let's see… how should I wake darling Peter up today?"

Sirius missed whatever torture James did to Peter, as he was in the shower. Although he _did_ hear a loud shriek while he was in there… a girly shriek.

He threw on a towel, and came out of the shower. Digging up some Hogwarts robes, he threw them on, with the shirt untucked, the tie hanging around his neck, and no dorky sweater. Realizing with a jolt that he was the only one left in the dorm, he raced down the stairs, and managed to catch some fifth year girls leaving for breakfast, too.

He followed them to the Great Hall, where he spotted James, Remus, and Peter sitting together almost instantly.

Going over to them, he plopped down on a seat next to James, and asked, "How did you get Peter up?"

At that mention of subject, James and Remus burst out laughing, while Peter turned a deep shade of red, and glowered at them.

"Well?"

"W-w-we d-d-dangled James' socks in front of his f-f-f-face t-t-t-to w-w-w-wake h-h-h-him u-u-up!"

"And m-m-my s-s-socks don-n't exactlysmellgreat," James giggled.

They were both laughing so hard tears were coming out of their eyes.

"So, then what happened?"

"We dangled a mouse in f-f-f-front of him!!"

More fits of laughter came after this.

"It-t-t-t-turns o-o-out that P-Pete's deathly afraid o-o-of m-m-mice!!" James giggled.

"And s-s-so h-he he-," Remus broke off then, exploded into more fits of laughter.

"WOKEUPANDSCREAMEDLIKEAGIRL!" James managed to blurt out, close to hysterics.

"T-t-then he jumped up and ran out of the room!" Remus said, somehow managing to make his laughter die down a bit.

"And, it w-w-wasn't even a r-r-real m-m-m-mouse!"

"So let me get this straight," Sirius began, "You woke Pete up with James' dirty socks, and then dangled a mouse in front of his face, Pete woke up, saw the mouse, screamed, and ran out of the room, afraid of the fake mouse?"

"AND HE SCREAMED LIKE A GIRL!" James added, loudly finishing the tale, earning him several strange looks or glares from the people around him.

Lily and her curly black-haired girl friend walked up to them, and the curly black-haired girl asked, "What's so funny?"

At this, he, James, and Remus all burst into laughter.

"SOCKS!"

"MOUSE!"

"GIRLSCREAMING!"

"HILARITY!"

Peter just glared at them.

Lily and her friend took one look at the three hysterically laughing boys, one look at a red and glaring Peter, and just assumed that it was some sort of prank that they pulled on him.

"Immature prats," Lily said.

"I feel sorry for him," Lily's friend said, gesturing towards Peter.

All the three boys could do was giggle. They couldn't help themselves. Peter eventually slid underneath the table.

Rolling their eyes, the two girls walked down to where they met another girl- Lily called out her name "Hey, Alice!"

One who called herself Alice responded by saying, "Hiya Lily and Mary!" And the three sat down next to another girl.

Professor McGonagall came by and handed them their schedules. She took one look at the three giggling boys, Peter under the table, closed her eyes, and muttered, "I don't want to know," the deputy headmistress walked away to hand out more schedules.

"Let's see what we have first period, shall we?" James asked, through a mouthful of food, looking at his schedule.

"Ugh. We have potions with the Slytherins first period. Great. Just what I need," Sirius muttered the last bit under his breath.

"Wonder where potions class is," James said, through another mouthful of food.

"Don't speak/chew with your mouth open, James. It's repulsive," Remus said, clearly disgusted.

"Yes mum," James retorted, through another mouthful of food, as if making a point that he wouldn't listen to whatever Remus told him.

He and Peter (who had come out from under the table) snickered while Remus glared at all of them.

"But seriously, where's potions?" James asked again, this time with no food in his mouth to show that he was, in fact, serious.

"Oh, I don't know. Let's go ask the other first years that DO know," Remus said, sarcastically.

He and Peter snickered again, while James crossed his arms in a very child-like manner.

"Nice James,"

Nearly twenty minutes later, he, James, Remus, and Peter burst into the potions classroom.

"I-told-you-we-should've-gone-to-the-right-Sirius!" Remus said, between pants.

"I did go to the right!"

"No, you went to the left!"

"It's not Opposite Day, Remus,"

"You're disillusional,"

"Not even in your wildest dreams,"

"Um, boys?" a male voice interrupted their argument.

"Yeah?" he and Remus asked simultaneously.

"Please, take a seat. Class started twenty minutes ago,"

Several of the Slytherins snickered, and even a few Gryffindors giggled at this.

"Right, Professor. Don't blame me. It was Sirius who went to the left instead of the right,"

"I did not! You told me to go to the left!"

"So you admit it!"

"I did not!"

"BOYS! PLEASE take a seat. I understand that it's always hardest the first week of school, but honestly, JUST SIT DOWN!" the professor exclaimed.

Grumbling, the four boys found an empty table in the back of the room, and sat down.

"I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd say they're arguing like an old married couple," the professor muttered under his breath, so that no one could hear him.

"Did not,"

"Did too,"

"My name is Professor Horace Slughorn- for those of you who chose to come in twenty minutes after class began," he pointedly glared at the four.

"What did we do? Interrupt his speech about how great he is?" James whispered to Sirius, who burst out laughing.

"Mr…"

"Black. Sirius Black," he said.

"Mr. Black, I suggest you be quiet, or else,"

"Or else what, Mr. Slughorn?" Sirius asked, putting on his best, 'I'm innocent', expression, which would eventually become well-known throughout the school. It also made James, Remus, and Peter howl with laughter.

Slughorn turned a slight shade of pink.

"As I was saying, this term in potions, we'll be studying mostly amateur potions, and some of the more historical things about potions. Near the end of the year, we'll start doing some more hands-on things. I like to think of these first few years at Hogwarts as the 'building blocks' for the later years at this school. There's always something new to discover, and there's always new advances you can achieve in school here,"

(James,** Sirius**)

Sirius, this is crap, isn't it?

Staring at his paper in shock, he looked at James, who grinned.

Mutter the charm '_Papel Telepathica__ James Potter'_

Glancing at him sideways, he made sure Slughorn wasn't looking. Then, he quickly whisked out his wand, and muttered, "_Papel __Telepathica__ James Potter,_"

A small jet of white light appeared out of his wand, and hit the paper, which glowed for a second before returning to its original color.

Now, just write what you want on the paper, and I'll see it on mine.

**Because you're sitting right next to me, dolt.**

I'll see it on my paper, Sirius.

**Right.**** So, where'd you get it?**

The spell? Oh, my dad gave it to me- along with a bunch of other cool stuff that I'll show you later.

**Awesome! So, where'd you think ****Transifguration**** is?**

Will you stop asking that?

**This is the first time I asked.**

Oh… so, are you up for some pranking later on?

**I guess so. But won't we get caught?**

We won't, Siri. Trust me.

**Whatever, ****Jamsie.**** Sure, it does sound ****kinda**** exciting.**

Trust me, Siri, it is.

**Teacher's looking this way!**

Quick! Look natural!

**Wait… w****here'd all the writing go?**

It all fades away in a few minutes. Weren't you paying attention to it?

**Apparently not.**** I was too busy paying attention to what you were writing to bother to notice what happened to the rest of the writing.**

Was that sarcasm?

**Why yes, ****Jamsie****, it was.**

Wait a second… didn't you just say Slughorn was looking over here?

**Oh yeah, I did. Crap. We seriously have to get better at this, ****Jamsie**

Right you are, Siri.

"Mr. Black and Mr…"

"Potter," James supplied.

"Mr. Black and Mr. Potter. I honestly have no wish to give you detention on the first day and class of school, but all of my instincts are telling me that you two are up to no good,"

"And when has that become a bad thing?" James asked, innocently.

"Since ever!"

"I seriously see nothing wrong with being 'up to no good', as you so kindly put it," he put in, just as innocently.

Lucky for Slughorn, the bell rang, so he was saved from having to respond.

"I'll get you two next time," Slughorn threatned.

"Meh," he said.

"You wish," James put in.

After they had left the classroom, the red head James was crushing on came up to them and said, "You really shouldn't have argued with Professor Slughorn like that," Lily said, glowering at them.

He glanced sideways at James, who was apparently staring dreamily at Lily (again?).

"Meh. You're grateful on the inside, Evans," he said, smirking at her.

"No, I don't think so, Black. Um, what's wrong with him?" she asked, noticing James staring at her. It must've unnerved her a bit.

"You mean James? Well, he's, he's- YOU HAVE A ZIT ON YOUR FOREHEAD!" he ran away from her before she could respond, dragging James with him.

They met up with Remus and Peter, and they tried to find their way to Transfiguration.

"Sirius?"

"Yeah Remus?"

"We're going right this time,"

"Sod off,"

-----

The rest of the day went by fairly easily. He and the others got lucky on quite a few classes, in which they blackmailed Peter into asking some older Gryffindors where the classes were.

On the few other classes they had, they honestly screwed up, getting lost most of the time. The only way they managed to get to those classes was because they asked a couple Gryffindors who had ditched class where the classrooms were.

They didn't miss much, though, seeing as the classes that they made it to the teachers had the same, 'beginning of the year speech' you get every first day of school. Mostly in these classes, he and James either passed notes or slept, seeing as they hadn't got much that night.

On their way to dinner, James asked him what he thought of the school so far.

"Incredible," he replied.

"Yeah, I sorta feel the same way," James agreed.

"We go right here, Sirius," Remus said, as they reached an intersection.

"We go LEFT!" he argued.

"Right,"

"Left,"

"Right,"

"Right,"

"Left,"

"Right,"

"Left,"

"Aww, thanks for agreeing with me, buddy!" he crowed, patting Remus on the back.

"What the…? I hate you," Remus muttered, glowering at him.

"I know," Sirius replied, smirking.

"Why don't we just follow the crowd, seeing as everyone else is going to dinner, you dolts?" James said, rolling his eyes while Peter snickered.

Both he and Remus looked slightly embarrassed, and they followed James to the Great Hall. After they had sat down, James said,"Sirius, I challenge you to a eating contest,"

"You're on, Potter," he accepted, smirking at him.

With Peter as their judge (Remus refused to have any part in the matter), Peter said, "Ready?" Both he and James picked up their forks. "Set," They bent down so that their faces almost touched their plates. "GO!"

He immediately began shoving everything edible into his mouth, and once he even caught himself trying to bit his own sleeve. Eventually giving up on his fork, he either used his hands or ate it with his mouth. The last way was easiest.

"And… STOP!" Peter yelled, realizing that there was no more food in the area.

"Um, SIRIUS WINS!" Pete announced.

"YES!" he exclaimed, triumphantly punching one fist in the air, while James sulked.

"So everyone, I have some important things to show you guys tonight," James said, quickly shaking off losing to him. When everyone (mainly Remus and Peter. He and James were stuffed.) was done eating, they quickly went up to their dorm.

James went over to his trunk after making sure Frank and Arthur weren't in the dorm, opened it.

"What's in there?" Remus asked, slightly alarmed when he heard a honking noise in the trunk.

"AHA! Here we are," James exclaimed, ignoring Remus' question.

He pulled out a large cloak.

"Wow," Peter said, gaping at it in amazement. After a few seconds, Pete asked, "What is it?"

"It's an Invisibility Cloak," James answered, proudly. James wrapped the cloak around him, and he disappeared.

"HOLY CRAP!" Sirius yelled.

James pulled off the cloak, laughing along with Remus and Peter.

"What?" he asked, cluelessly.

After those three had calmed down, James said, "One day, I snuck into Diagon Alley this summer while my parents were at the Ministry for a meeting, and I got a TON of pranking stuff for school," James produced a very heavy looking bag, and pulled out a second one, too. Equally large, the bags said, 'Mischief Central' on them.

Peter's mouth dropped to the ground.

"That's not all," he added, and pulled out two other bags from the same store, although the last bag was smaller.

Remus followed Peter's previous action.

"Holy crap, James. You're parents were gone that long?" he asked, shocked.

"Some of them are from different occasions, but yeah, most of them are,"

"Awesome! When do we start?" he exclaimed.

"Well, first we have to pick a victim. The store manager said that that was the first step," James said.

"I NOMINATE BELLATRIX!" he burst out.

"Any objections?" James inquired. No one objected. "Good. The victim will be Bellatrix. Secondly, we need to figure out the prank,"

"I vote we spill honey on her that doesn't come off!"

"Good idea, Sirius, but it has to be just a step further," James pulled something out of one of the bags.

"Gentlemen, do you know what these are?"

His eyes widened in recognition.

Remus' mouth dropped open for the second time that night.

Peter stared stupidly into space.

"We will strike tomorrow at noon,"

They quickly planned out the details of the prank, and soon had it all figured out. It was flawless! Unfortunately, they heard footsteps coming up to their dorm.

"Boys, we will carry this discussion over breakfast tomorrow in the Great Hall," James said, putting the four bags back in his trunk and shutting the lid.

When Frank and Arthur came in, they found Peter teaching the other three boys to play 'Down by the Banks of the Hankie Pankie'.

After the game, Remus made them all go to bed early, seeing as they had made him miss out on his sleep yesterday.

Ignoring this, he, James, and Peter played Poker (another game Peter taught them.) until two-thirty in the morning. Peter ended up owing him and James twenty galleons each. He owed James seven galleons. Both he and James owed Peter one galleon each.

"Well, that was fun!" James said, cheerfully wrapping the game up.

"I have no idea how you're so cheerful at two-thirty in the morning," he groaned, yawning in the process.

"Oh, shut it, Siri. You're starting to sound like Remmy," James yawned.

"Hypocrite!"

Suddenly, a loud snore interrupted what would've been a loud and heated argument, resulting in waking up Remus, Frank, and Arthur, although how they got to sleep was beyond him.

The two looked up to see Peter sound asleep on the floor.

"Well, er- maybe we should go to sleep, Siri," James said, awkwardly.

"Yeah, see you in the morning," he agreed, collapsing in his bed, falling asleep immediately.

Sighing, James grabbed a pillow from Peters bed and put it under Pete's head before collapsing into his own bed himself.

* * *

This is it! Now, remember to review!!! 


	3. The Bestest Prank EVER!

First things first, I feel AWFUL about making you guys wait this long for me to update my story! I have been really busy lately, with a lot of school stuff going on, but since SCHOOL'S OUT (WOOT WOOT!! :D) I've had a LOT more free time, in which I spent writing this. I felt really bad, so I tried to make it longer than usual (although I really didn't have to try to make it long), so without further adue, I give you CHAPTER THREE!! (But wait, there's the thank you's for reviewing, and the infamous DISCLAIMER... awww- don't worry, jk ;D)

A BIG THANK YOU goes out to: nocturne tigress (thx again), TimeWitch15 (THNX!! u rock!), and 14hp1 (AWESOME!) and anyone else who put my story on their favs/alerts list. Although I appreciate it, could you send in a review next time, please? I think you'd definitely get a quicker update that way (hint hint)!

Just a warning, this chapter contains more cussing. If you spot any grammatical errors, just point them out to me!

Disclaimer: Uhh, I'm out of creative ideas at the present time, so I don't own HP. Duh.

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Chapter 3: The Prank

The next day, Sirius woke up to a VERY loud scream, and laughter quickly following. He jumped up in his bed, startled. Before he could even begin to wonder what had happened, water was being poured on him, making any chances of going back to sleep impossible. And Sirius knew who the culprit was without even thinking.

"FUCK YOU JAMES POTTER!!" he yelled in fury.

He heard a loud snicker from outside. Angrily, he shoved his bed curtains and sheets aside. Standing up next to the bed, his eyes scanned the room for the source of the laugh. Then, he saw the door open, and he flew towards the door- thinking it was James leaving. Unfortunately, there was no James Potter- at least where he charged. As soon as he was fully out of the room, the door slammed, and he heard a lock click into place on the other side. Again, he shouted those three cursed words:

"FUCK YOU JAMES POTTER!!"

Or four, whichever worked best. He heard more giggles from the clearly demented boy, and perhaps some others, too.

Saying, or more like shouting, some words that should never have to be said (words worse than fuck), at the door for several minutes, he realized for the first time that the house prefect was standing right behind him... and glaring at him.

"Oopsies," he muttered sheepishly, and turned around to face him.

"I think the most obvious question is: Why the hell are you saying those things to a door?" the Gryffindor prefect asked.

"My so-called SOON TO BE IN HELL ex-best friend James Potter locked me out," he replied, glaring ferociously at the first year's dormitory door, and raising his voice at the 'soon to be in hell'.

Rolling his eyes, the prefect pointed his wand at the doorknob, and muttered "_Alohamora"._ When that didn't work, the prefect rolled his eyes again, pointed his wand at the doorknob, and shouted, "_Bombarda_", making the doorknob and surrounding area blast into a thousand tiny pieces. The prefect then gently pushed the door open.

"There you go, first year," he said.

"Thanks!" Sirius replied. Then he shouted, "JAMES POTTER, YOU'RE A FUCKING DEAD MAN!!" before barging into the room- only to find it abandoned. Muttering a curse under his breath, he moved carefully around the room, in case James was still in his 'prank-Sirius' mode. He went over to his trunk, and grabbed his uniform. Opening the bathroom door- he heard the door to the dorm slam as he closed his own. "Damn them all," he muttered. He was very experienced in cursing- he had heard his father do it all the time. You really didn't want to be in the same room as him when the topic of 'Muggle born' or 'Blood traitors' or anything else like that was mentioned in his presence.

As he got dressed, he realized he was being too goddamn serious (LOL, SERIOUS!!) about everything. He should just have fun with it all. Here he was- miles away from his parents- and he hadn't used their absence to its full advantage yet! He couldn't wait to prank Bella later on today!! It would be hilarious to see her expression- she'd never see it coming!!

Sirius' thoughts were interrupted as his stomach growled- and he hurried to get the rest of his clothes on. He had decided yesterday that the official Hogwarts uniform looked WAY to dorky for him, so he modified it today. In his own "Sirius Style".

He was wearing the white polo shirt untucked and buttoned two buttons below regulation, and no belt, tie, or vest. He had on black tennis shoes, a pair of slightly ripped dark blue jeans he had snuck into his trunk when his parents weren't looking, and the Hogwarts robe. As his stomach growled again (reminding him of his constant and strange desire for food at all times), he sprinted out of the room, and the rest of the way to the Great Hall.

Sirius came into the Great Hall panting; his breathing coming in short, ragged breaths. Sirius scanned the Gryffindor table for his friends, and spotting them, went over to sit next to them- plopping down in a seat next to James.

"Hey Sirius!" James said, like nothing had happened in the dorm earlier this morning. Ha, ya right!

Peter and Remus, who were currently chewing their food, simply nodded their heads towards him.

"Okay, when are we going to prank Bella?" he asked, lowering his voice and grabbing a piece of French toast.

"I was thinking at the change of classes- that way, practically everyone will see it," James replied, his hazel eyes glowing at the prospect.

"Cool! How 'bout right after lunch? That way, she can't go back and change. Well, she could, but she'd be late for McGonagall's class- and you don't want to be late for her class," he suggested.

"Tell me about it!" James agreed.

"Do you have the stuff?" he asked.

"Yep! It's in my pocket right now! My dad taught me the Shrinking Charm- it's actually quite handy," James answered, grinning at him.

"Excellent. Do you have the camera?"

All three (Yes, despite what any of you may think, Remus and Peter could and were following the conversation) of them looked at Peter.

"Yeah- the camera's here," he squeaked, holding it up.

"Don't hold it up! Do you want people to see that?!" James shouted, reaching across the table, grabbing the camera and put it back in Pete's bag. It also drew many glares or the usual 'first years are crazy' looks towards them. It was mostly the second one.

"Yeah- way to NOT attract attention, Jamie," Sirius said, sarcastically.

"Sorry Pete," James muttered, a little sheepishly.

"Um, it's okay. You can hold on to the camera for now James," Peter squeaked, his voice cracking a little.

"Uh, okay," James still looked a little guilty over the incident, but eleven year old boys never stay guilty for long, and soon, he, James, Remus, and Peter were joking and laughing like nothing had happened... or about what would happen right before sixth period!

After lunch, they were walking as slowly as possible to their next class- potions with the Slytherins. They had learned shuffling didn't help much, so they decided to make their steps exaggeratedly slow. Hopefully enough so they'd miss the whole class!

"Where are we going?" Peter asked, always the clueless one.

Remus rolled his eyes, but replied, "Didn't you look at the schedule McGonagall gave you? We have potions with the Slytherins next… unfortunately,"

"I uh- lost my schedule yesterday. I thinks someone from Slytherin- probably that Malfoy character- stole it from me at dinner yesterday," Peter said, after his mouth formed an 'O'.

He pulled James over to the side- away from Peter. "You took it, didn't you?"

"Now what would make you even THINK such a thing?" James said, winking mischievously at him. The two laughed- making Remus and Peter look at them questioningly (Remus looked more suspicious than Peter did, though).

"Hey- do you remember how stuck up and conceited Slughorn sounded yesterday? He's probably a real crackpot," Sirius stated.

"He definitely seemed… into himself. He WAS looking at himself in a mirror what seemed like 24/7," Peter agreed.

"I wonder what he'll make us do today," Remus wondered, joining in the conversation.

"Care of Magical Creatures seemed interesting, though. I wonder if the professor's gonna start us off easy, or go straight into it," James said.

"I hope he goes straight into it. I'm tired of all the babying the prof give us," he complained.

"Enjoy that while it lasts- you'll miss it sooner than you think," a fifth year Ravenclaw advised as she passed them.

He, James, Remus, and Peter carried on talking about their classes- and he every so often laughed to himself when he pictured what Bella's reaction would be and what she'd look like after she was 'Maraudered' as James put it. Still, he couldn't help himself from thinking about it!

"Hey guys- we're here! Unfortunately," Remus muttered, glowering darkly the door before he opened it.

James groaned. They reluctantly went into the classroom and took their seats in the back of the room. Sirius noticed in horror that Bella and Cissy were in the back of the room on the opposite side of them! He disliked them so much, it wasn't even funny anymore! Choosing to ignore their constant whipsering and giggling, he lazily leaned back in his seat next to James. Leaning back in his chair and put his feet up against the desk yawning in the proess. Smirking, James did the same, if not a bit more dramatically.

Slughorn stood up and had begun to say something about partners for the year. Sirius paid attention for the first bit, and then he dozed off. For some reason, he dreamed about flying, dancing cherry's singing 'We love pineapples!' We love pineapples!' in the sky. Then, the mysteriously strange dream changed. The cherry's fell from their place in the sky right when they were in the middle of saying the word 'love', so they just chanted 'Lo-'. It began to rain, too. _WHY WAS IT RAINING?!_ After that, a cherry- WHY A CHERRY?- came up to him and said, "Sirius, Sirius, WAKE UP!" Why would a cherry say that? Unless he had fallen asleep on Mount Everest and he had died and the cherry was like... a messenger of God or something...?

Opening his eyes, he was horrified to see Slughorn glaring right at him. "Mr. Black and Mr. Potter- seeing as you two can't stay awake for two seconds- we'll give you the honor of going first," Oh, that damn cherry. Not that he thought Slughorn was a cherry or anything, but still, he had been able to SMELL the cherry. Maybe Slughorn had cherry-flavored cologne... well, it was a possibility! A strange one, but still a possibilty... Maybe it WAS true!! He always looked red in the face all the time. Was he going crazy? Well, if Sirius was in heaven, he might be crazy! Wait... how did he die if he was in heaven? Why didn't he remember it? Were you supposed to remember how you died when you got to heaven? Did the cherries kill him? ATTACK OF THE CHERRIES! What if they all piled up on top of him so he couldn't breath and he died from no air to breath?

"That doesn't make any sense- which one of us goes first?" James muttered, leaning into him and whispering that in his ear.

"Maybe he's a cherry disguised as a teacher to help cherries take over the world!" Sirius whispered back to him. In response, James looked at him like he was the most craziest, insanest, looniest person on the face of the earth! Well, maybe James had a right that time...

"Mr. Potter- you will be assigned with Mr. Malfoy. You can go over there next to him now. You two will be partners for the rest of the school year- or until I say differently," Slughorn said, sternly.

"Tough luck, mate," Sirius said, as a groaning James picked up his bag and went over to the Slytherin side of the room as the person next to Malfoy (He was pretty sure it was Crabbe, but he wasn't sure) got up and let James sit there.

"Mr. Black. You will be paired with… Miss Black,"

"Which Miss Black?" he asked, knowing there were three others in the room. He didn't believe in God, but now he was praying fervently that he wouldn't have to work TOGETHER with Bella. Well, he might be able to stand Cissy, but BELLA?! He swore, he would go and murdur Slughorn himself if he was forced to work with his EVIL, SADISTIC cousin(s) who CAME FROM THE DEVIL!

"Umm," Slughorn paused; clearly pondering which Black was would make him most miserable.

"Andromeda," he said, after a little time of thought, clearly satisfied. Sirius noticed that Cissy and Bella let out sighs of relief as 'Dromeda moved to sit next to him, but he shrugged it off. He was really relieved too! 'Dromeda was the nicest Black out of his cousins. She would always stop Bella when she said something strongly evil-minded, devilish, and twisted towards him when the adults weren't listening to what was being said between their children.

Slughorn was obviously disappointed by Sirius' 'lack of negative reaction'- as Remus put it later- but he continued on with the pairings. Bella got paired with Evans, Remus was paired with Narcissa, and Peter was paired with Snape (Which was certain to end in either Snape or Peter being murdered. More than likely, it would be Peter.)

He dozed off again, this time doing it a little more inconspicuously by putting his head on the edge of the desk and sliding his book in his lap, pretending to read his book.

Before he knew it, he was jerked awake by the bell. Startled, Sirius jumped up in his seat at the sudden sound of noise. Andromeda rolled her dark brown eyes, her expression showing silent laughter, while he grinned sheepishly at her.

"I expect one and a half pages on the process of the Vampire Syndrome and the potion to enlighten it- in great detail- by Friday," Slughorn shouted above the noise of the all-too-eager first year students to get out of the room.

He said "Bye," to his cousin before hurrying to catch up with his friends, who were already halfway down the hallway.

"Can you believe Slughorn? I have to spend the REST OF THE YEAR sitting next to grand ole' LUCIOUS MALFOY!" James burst out as soon as Sirius got there.

"I know! I have to work TOGETHER with Narcissa Black! I don't think either of us was thrilled when he forced us to be partners," Remus agreed.

"Who I really pity is the red-head girl James thinks is cute. She has to work with Bella the rest of the year. The poor girl will be murdered if she even TALKS to Bella," he put in.

"At least I don't have to work with Snivellus," James said, nudging Peter.

"Yeah- that partnerships' for sure going to end in a bust," he added.

"Thanks for your encouragement, you guys," Peter muttered, sarcastically.

For some reason, James hadn't caught onto the sarcasm. Or maybe he had, and was just playing along. It was most likely the latter reason.

"You're most certainly welcome, Pete!"

"Aye," he agreed, in clearly false cheeriness.

"So, you haven't complained about working with your cousin, Sirius," Remus pointed out, changing the direction the conversation was going.

"'Dromeda? She's pretty cool, for being the sister of the evil wicked Black sisters, Cissy and Bella. Much better than Bella, that's for sure. If I was paired with THAT cousin, we'd probably end up killing each other before Christmas," he replied.

All three of his friends were staring at him, their mouths hanging open.

"What?" he asked, getting a little uncomfortable with their staring.

"_Cissy?_" James whispered, through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, what about her?"

Then, all three of them- even Remus- burst into hysterical laughter. And suddenly, he got it, and grinned himself.

"Cissy DOES act like a sissy a lot!" he laughed as they went to their next class- Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws.

They were still laughing when they entered McGonagall's classroom, but this time, it was because they ran into a fifth year student, and he told them Professor McGonagall's first name- Minerva! James had immediately come up with the perfect nickname- Minnie! Then, Sirius had dared James to call the professor 'Minnie' all during class today, and James had dared him to do the same in retaliation.

He had a smirk on his face (just like James) as they took their what-was-becoming-usual seats in the back-left corner of the room.

"You're late," Minerva said, glaring pointedly at them.

He nudged James, and James stood up.

"Why Minnie, how kind of you to notice! I'm flattered!"

The professor turned a slight shade of pink as the class snickered.

"Mr. Potter, as you and your friends so kindly showed up ten minutes late, that's ten points from each of you, and as disrespect for a teacher, that's another five for you," she said, immediately taking control over the situation in front of her.

"But we only showed up five minutes late!" Sirius protested, also standing up to help defend his friend.

"But you wasted the other five exchanging… pleasantries with me, taking away time I could have been teaching the class something important,"

"Oh yes, learning how to turn a toothpick into a sewing needle is VERY important," James said, sarcastically and rolling his eyes dramatically.

"That's another five points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter," Minerva retorted.

"What kind of a head of house takes away points from her own house? You'd NEVER see Slughorn taking away points from Slytherin- and we all know they're the worst house!" Sirius exclaimed.

"That's it, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black! You-,"

"Please, call me James," James said, very majestically.

"Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, you have detention tonight, in my office at seven p.m. Do NOT be late!" she said angrily, and with an air of finality- settling the situation.

"I think we'll all get detention after what happens to Bella," Sirius whispered in James' ear, high-fiving him.

"That's only if we get caught," James replied, high-fiving him again.

He and James barely paid attention to the lecture- er, lesson. Actually, they passed notes the whole time. Minerva couldn't really yell at them, as they both turned the toothpick into a needle with almost scary perfection. She grudgingly gave them ten points each to Gryffindor, along with the Evans girl, Remus, and a few other Ravenclaws for successfully changing the toothpick into a needle too.

When the bell rang, the four quickly left the Transfiguration classroom before Minnie could get their hands on them.

The next two class periods, Herbology and Charms, seemed to go on forever. Each minute dragged along like a snail trying to run on a sidewalk, and Sirius silently cheered each time the minute hand passed the twelve. Every so often, they'd put a countdown on his paper, out of pure boredom of the lesson. Okay, maybe he WAS overexcited, but he really wanted to see Bella get dungbombed into the next century!

In fourth period- Charms (which they had with Hufflepuff)- he and James worked out the remaining details, in which they also included Remus in their paper conversation.

By lunchtime, they were practically giddy with contagious excitement. Peter was actually jumping up and down, and there was an ecstatic gleam of mischief and anticipation from all four of them. He and James were also whispering excitedly to one another- in hushed whispers even Peter and Remus couldn't hear. Even Remus seemed to be looking forward to it. It showed by the light in his eyes, and Remus could feel the nervous excitement in the pit of his stomach- kind of like waiting to ride a huge roller coaster.

Still, he, James, Remus, and Peter acted as nothing important was going to happen right after lunch- at least, to everyone else it looked like they were just four boys excited to be at Hogwarts.

He quickly scarfed down his lunch, and with a nod to James, ran as fast as he could to their dorm room. Breathless, he opened the door, and pausing for a couple moments to catch his breath, went over to James' trunk. He pulled out the Invisibility Cloak. (James had everything else shrunken in his pocket). Grinning with anticipation, Sirius slipped the cloak on, and clutched the supplies under his arm, going to the Transfiguration corridor.

When he got to the Transfiguration hallway, McGonagall and all (or most) of the other teachers were eating lunch in the hall- and if one of them left, Remus had a piece of parchment in which he would warn James- who also had a piece of parchment and had met him in the hallway.

James slid into the cloak and joined Sirius, and together, the two quickly and stealthily began setting up the prank.

Remus contacted James fifteen minutes later, when he and James were putting the finishing touches on their prank in the hallway. Professor McGonagall was walking back to her classroom to prepare for her next class, he had written.

Exchanging anxious glances with James- they weren't totally done yet- they quickly went back to setting it up.

"So, are we done yet?" Sirius asked James, with baited breath. The whole experience had felt insane- he had loved every second of it! It felt like there was a certain exhilarating freedom about breaking the rules like this. He would definitely do it again!

It wasn't like it was his first prank- he had pulled pranks on Bella whenever she had the misfortune of coming to his house. And even though Bella knew it was him without a doubt, his parents always put the blame on his little brother, Regulus.

He had also pulled many pranks on his parents (Always successful. Only the first prank he did had backfired on him), they always accused Regulus- as he was the second son, and obviously the one to blame. In their eyes, Sirius was the Golden Son any parent could ever have the hope of having.

Of course, he had always pretended to believe in his parents' harsh and unfair teachings of Muggles- or mudbloods as his parents called them- blood traitors, half-bloods, and the idea that the Blacks were superior because they had 'pure blood'. He really had no other choice because he was afraid of how his parents would treat him if he told them that he hadn't bought any bit of it. He still was, but he had good friends, even if the depth of their friendship hadn't been tested yet.

"Almost," James replied. "We just have to set up the wire the will make the dungbombs fall,"

"Okay. I'll do it," He swiftly attached the invisible wire to the first dungbomb.

"Thanks, Siri,"

"You're welcome, Jamie," He and James had time to high-five each other before they caught sight of Professor McGonagall heading towards her classroom.

"Uh oh. We'd better get out of here," he said, anxiously.

"Relax, Siri. We're under the cloak, remember?" James reminded him teasingly.

"Right. I still haven't gotten used to the idea,"

"Obviously, or you would've have-,"

"Ssshhhh! She's coming within earshot!"

"And when did you learn such a big word?"

"Shut up!"

"Or what?"

"I'll kick you out of the cloak!"

"Fat chance; It's MY cloak, dummy. If anyone's leaving, it's gonna be you,"

"If I go down you're going down with me!"

"And when did it become illegal to travel this hall during lunch hour?"

"She might get suspicious!"

"No kidding. Two boys she just discovered hiding under an invisibility cloak. That's not suspicious at all,"

"But she doesn't know what would be the cause of the suspicion!"

"What the hell, Sirius?"

"What the hell, Sirius?" he mimicked James in a high-pitched voice.

"Uhhh, you DO realize Minnie's like, right next to the door?" James questioned in a stage whisper.

"No, really? Why else would we be having a CLEARLY whispered argument?" Sirius said, sarcastically.

He covered James' mouth right when Prof. McG. stared right at them. He also noticed James slap his hand over Sirius' mouth in return.

Luckily, the Prof. must've told herself she imagined it, because she went inside her classroom and shut the door behind her.

Sirius removed his hand from James' mouth, and James did the same to his.

"That was close," James breathed.

"Yeah, it was," he agreed.

"Let's get back to the others," James said.

"Yeah,"

--

The journey to the sixth period Transfiguration class began as normal as it ever did. Students from seventh years to first years were communing back and forth in the corridor, couples were making out behind curtains or in broad daylight, and friends were gabbing about stuff, ranging from Quidditch to which boy/girl in their grade was the hottest.

The noise level quite reminded many people of the cafeteria in which many had just left. Well, except for one thing: four certain students who were supposed to be on their way to Care of Magical Creatures (which didn't involve the Transfiguration hallway in any way whatsoever) were in the bustling hallway, waiting for the signal from a certain (unbeknownst to the other three, and every other student in the school) werewolf.

Luckily, as there were so many people in the overcrowded hallway, barely anyone at all spared them a second glance- which definitely worked in their favor. The four friends were standing in the four corners of the hallway, looking as inconspicuous as possible.

Finally, Remus spotted Bella. Giving the signal to James, who gave it to Sirius, who was waiting impatiently by the invisible wire that would trigger the entire prank itself. He gave the signal to Peter, who got ready to take a picture of Bella and the hallway. Meeting James' eyes, he nodded, and taking a deep breath, pulled the invisible wire that would lead the hallway into complete disaster right before their eyes.

He spotted Bella immediately, who was walking and talking with Cissy, just a few steps into the hall. Grinning ecstatically, he eagerly watched the dungbomb fall on her. It all started with one, which landed smack-dab on the target. Her reaction was hilarious (he seriously hoped Peter was taking pictures. He'd probably murder the kid if he wasn't)!!

Bella froze in complete shock. As she realized what had fallen on her head, she screamed bloody murder (Of either rage or horror, we will never know. More than likely, it was both)! Also, if the fall of the first dungbomb hadn't stopped everyone in their tracks before, the scream definitely did!

Then, after James gave him the second signal, he pulled the wire again. This triggered the rest of the dungbombs, which began falling on everyone else! They were falling every-which-way, and it finally sunk into Sirius just how many of those things James had. Suddenly, Prof. McGonagall came into the hallway to see what was going on. Her mouth dropped open in full shock- especially when a dungbomb hit her on her head!

_And that's our signal to get out of here,_ Sirius thought as he saw James tell him to leave ASAP. He stealthily cut the invisible wire down, and ran as far away as he could from the corridor with Remus right behind him.

"You know, we should get to Care of Magical Creatures," Remus panted. "Prof. McGonagall might get a paper of all people tardy or absent during this time. She'd just KNOW it'd be us… or James at least,"

As much as he hated to agree with Remus' logical thinking, he did. "Yeah, we should hurry up and get to class, like, NOW," he agreed.

They went outside, and they met up with James and Pete- who were also on their way to Care of Magical Creatures. The class was actually exciting (The first one that day, if you didn't count Potions and Transfiguration.) Sirius had no idea what he was doing the whole time, but that only made it more fun! (At least in his opinion)

"And now, to History of Magic!" Remus said, strangely excited.

"Aww, do we HAVE to go to HOM?" he whined.

"I guess you could ditch with James. I'm sure he wouldn't complain,"

"You wouldn't BELIEVE the great shots Peter got!" James said, excitedly, catching up to them with Peter trailing behind.

"Let me see!" Sirius exclaimed, eager to see the shots of Bella covered in dungbombs.

"Not now- there are too many witnesses around. How 'bout during HOM?" James suggested.

"In or out of the classroom?"

"We'll go in, then we'll sneak out using my Invisibility Cloak. I swear that ghost only talks to hear his own voice. Anyone else wanna come with us?"

"I will!" Pete said, but his voice was drowned out by the second warning bell, so James didn't hear his voice. Startled by the sudden noise, the four raced to get inside.

--

About fifteen minutes later, he and James were on the balcony of their dorm room, laughing at the pictures of Bella covered in dungbombs.

"This is too good! It's perfect blackmail!" Sirius exclaimed, tears in his eyes.

"Yeah it is!" James said, grinning from ear to ear.

"It was a PERFECT prank, Jamie! Way to go!" they high-fived again, grinning.

"You know what time it is now?" James asked, suddenly.

"What time IS it?" he asked.

"Time to plan our next incredible prank!"

"Let's go!" Together, he and James went inside and began planning their next prank- on a certain Transfiguration professor.

They would've done it for the rest of the day, but unfortunately, time flies when you're planning an expert prank, and they regretfully had to go to their next (but last) class of the day- Defense Against the Dark Arts. Or as they liked to call it, DADA.

"We will carry on this conversation later, Siri," James said, leaving the common room with Sirius on the edge of his heels.

"That we will do, Jamie, that we will do,"

They rushed to get to DADA (And yes, they did pronounce it da da, like the father), and saw that Remus and Peter were already there in the back of the classroom.

Unfortunately, the class was just listening to the professor explain the necessary techniques to do the next few things they would be learning. He was disappointed- he had been looking forward to this class all day, and he'd been expecting to do something with a little more… action… involved. Clearly, James felt the same because they passed notes expressing the unfairness of it all. Finally, their boredom was saved by the bell, in which Sirius had never been so grateful for the bell to ring so they could get out of class.

He was the first person out the door, quickly followed by James and the rest of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws.

They had some free time until they went to dinner, so the four chose to go outside- next to a great big oak tree near the Black Lake- where he and James told Remus and Peter about their next great prank. (They also showed Remus the pics of Bella, and Remus got a very good and long laugh out of it) It seemed like a lot of students were out here, actually. Some were doing homework, couples were kissing in trees, friends were talking and hanging out, most still were playing games like patty cake and tag, and the braver ones were swimming in the Black Lake.

After about twenty minutes, Remus was reading, Peter was sleeping, and he and James were (believe it or not) checking out the older girls that were outside with them.

"Look at that babe," he pointed to where a girl in a blue and white bikini had just been forcibly pushed into the lake by her friends- who were also very good-looking.

"I could get used to this. I'd give her an eight," James said, leaning back against the tree trunk.

"Me too," he agreed, also leaning back against the trunk, and staring at this one beautiful girl who looked to be in about her third year.

"She's pretty," James commented, looking at the girl Sirius was staring at.

"Yeah, but she's mine,"

"I'd give her a seven,"

"Yeah, a seven seems right,"

"She's WAY out of your range, though,"

"Shut up!"

The girl had straight black hair that went down to her shoulders. She was in her Hogwarts uniform, but she had somehow managed to make the uniform look more… sexy. She had pink flip-flops on, and suddenly, she took off all her clothes- to reveal a red and pink bikini underneath. Her two friends did the same, and were racing each other to the lake, where the girl met a guy (who was relatively handsome), and kissed him passionately on the lips, before she grabbed his hand and they both jumped into the water together.

"Aw, she's taken. Sorry, mate," James said, patting him on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Oh well… I guess there are plenty other fish in the sea," he sighed, sadly.

"Glad to hear you think so positively," James beamed.

"Ugghh, I'm hungry. Can we go eat now?" he asked, suddenly, as he heard his stomach growl in hunger.

"Sure! Remus, me and Siri are gonna get dinner now. Do you wanna come with us?" James asked.

Remus looked up from the book he was reading, and shook his head. "I'll eat later- when Pete wakes up," he gestured towards Peter.

"K. Let's go, Siri,"

The way to dinner was unexpectedly peaceful, as most students were either eating, outside, or in their common room. James was telling him about some of the pranks he pulled the whole way there, making him laugh until tears were in his eyes.

He was still giggling after they left the Great Hall about twenty minutes later, and they met Remus and Peter on their way to go to the common room- to plan more about their next prank, no doubt.

"I'm STARVED!" Peter complained.

"Then come on!" Remus said, with a little wave to him and James. They acknowledged it, and went to the common room. Maybe to do homework (which their professors had given them a lot of), or maybe to plan the next prank, or both, as Sirius had no wish to stay up until three in the morning doing homework that was due in a few hours.

"So, Jamie,"

"So, Siri,"

"RACE YOU!" Sirius challenged, and they raced up to the Gryffindor tower, laughing all the way.

One hour later, they had officially finished planning the prank, but Remus- who had been reading while they were planning- suddenly said, "Don't you two have detention with McGonagall tonight?"

He and James looked at each other, sharing panicked alarm.

"OH SHIT!" James exclaimed, jumping out of his seat by the fireplace in the warm, brightly lit common room.

"We completely forgot! What time did she say?!" he yelled, moving towards the portrait, with James right behind him.

"Uh, seven?" Remus told them, looking a little astonished they had forgotten already. He glanced at the grandfather clock standing grandly in the corner of the room.

"SIX FIFTY SEVEN! SIRIUS, HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET TO HER CLASS IN THREE MINUTES?!" James shouted- his eyes widening in horror at the thought of how angry McGonagall would be at them tomorrow. Luckily, the common room was loud enough already, so no one really noticed or cared who was screaming.

"I DON'T KNOW! NOT BY STANDING AROUND HERE! COME ON, JAMES, WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!! NOW!!"

Together, he and James burst out of the Gryffindor common room and onto the top of the staircase.

"Which way do we go?!" James asked, his eyes huge and wild.

"Ummm, I think it's this way. Come on!"

He lead the way down the stairs, then in which James had a sudden clue where to get to class.

"This way, Sirius!" James lead the way down the hall, and Sirius followed anxiously, sprinting to catch up with him.

"WHAT TIME IS IT?!" he bellowed. Well, at least he tried to bellow, but it was hard to on account of he was running while shouting it.

"Uh, one minute left! Come on, you know what she's like when people are late!!" James said, in an unnatural high, squeakyish voice.

Picking up speed, they sprinted through the corridors, right now not caring who the hell they bumped into. But to their horror, the minute hand on James' watch moved (Why couldn't time move this fast during Potions?) up, and it buzzed SEVEN O' CLOCK!

"NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" he exclaimed, in horrified disbelief as he imagined what the wrath of McGonagall would be tomorrow. Just then, James tripped over his shoelaces- which he hadn't tied, saying they looked cooler that way.

Sirius caught up to him, and pulled him up.

Just as it moved to say '7:01', they burst into the Transfiguration classroom, to see the professor sitting in her desk- looking very superficial.

"Uh oh," he muttered between pants. He exchanged a slightly worried glance with James- they were both worried about her reaction.

"We're in for it," James whispered to him.

* * *

I personally thought the ending was bad, but I really didn't want to add anything else cuz I didn't really (this is going to sound pathetic) feel like adding anymore to it. Oh well, hope you like it!


	4. Weekend Trouble!

Hey! I know it's been a while, and this chapter isn't very long, but I decided you guys waited enough for the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

I tried to give this a bit more action comedy to it, and give it a bit more energy. Hopefully it has more!

Special thanks to those who reviewed!

(disclaimer: i don't own HP)

* * *

CHAPTER FOUR: weekend trouble

"LOOKOUT BELOW!!" James yelled as he dropped a water balloon off of the Astronomy tower. Instantly, they raced behind the door as the balloon dropped onto an unsuspecting seventh year boy.

"YES! We have a hit, Jamie!" he exclaimed, grinning.

"Yeah we do!" James agreed, high-fiving Sirius and laughing.

James filled up another balloon, and gave it to Sirius. "Okay, your turn,"

"Great!! Okay, I'm gonna do it!" Focusing on the same guy, he threw the balloon over the edge of the Astronomy tower. Giggling maniacally, he immediately raced back into the classroom (where the teacher was conveniently not there) and high-fived James.

"Okay, let's see the damage we did so far," James said, grabbing his cloak, threw it on himself and Sirius.

Their primary target was dripping wet (for some reason he hadn't left when he'd first been soaked).

"Awesome," he said, giddily jumping up and down.

"Relax, buddy! We still have plenty left!" James said, happy his friend liked pranking so much and sharing his friends' excitement. Hey, it was contagious!

Sirius picked up another water balloon. "Okay, I'm gonna get- ooh! There's Bella! I'm gonna get her so bad, she won't even know what the hell hit her!!"

Aiming at her, he threw the balloon at her, HARD! Jumping up and down in eagerness, he saw it get her right on the head! _SPLAT!!_

"Get down, you idiot! She'll see you!" James whispered, behind the doors of the classroom. Realizing his mistake with a jolt, he quickly threw himself down on the floor, praying Bella wouldn't recognize him- if she HAD spotted him- in that split second where he had forgotten to duck and cover. Slowly and carefully, he slid himself across the floor and into the safety of the classroom.

"That was close! Do you think anyone spotted me?" he asked James, breathlessly.

"We'll find out, I suppose. Okay, it's MY TURN now!" James grinned.

James- under the protection of the cloak this time- walked out onto the balcony. Cleverly shifting the cloak so he could have a good shot and still not be seen, he threw the balloon on top of a boy's head! Smirking, James went back inside and gave the cloak to Sirius.

"This is just too good!" James laughed.

"I know! It's a REALLY good thing you decided to pick up the water balloons at the store!" Sirius agreed, grinning at him.

"Actually, my Uncle- let's just say he's very in-depth with Muggles- sent me these yesterday after Peter told me about them; they're a Muggle thing, ya know?"

"Yeah- sometimes Muggles come up with great stuff! Like water balloons!" For emphasis, he threw one at James- which got him right in the chest!

"Oh, you're gonna pay for that one, Black!" James said, grabbing a balloon out of the bucket and throwing it at him.

"I don't think so!" he sung at him.

"And why not?"

"Because I'm gonna kick your butt!"

"You wish!"

James grabbed another one and threw it at him. Sirius ducked under a table, but it hit him on his left shoe.

"Ooohhh, you hit my foot, James! I'm terrified!"

"You should be," Raising his arm to throw one, he realized it wasn't James who had said that.

It was Professor McGonagall.

"Bust-ed," James muttered.

"Big time," he added.

"Drop that balloon," McGonagall ordered, looking at him in a way that would've made the evilest man on earth shudder in pure terror.

Sirius obediently let the balloon go, sending it to the ground with a fierce vengeance.

"Come with me you two," she said, sternly walking over to them. Grabbing Sirius' left arm and James' right, McGonagall yanked those up in the air- hard, earning her,

"Ow!" and

"What was that for?! We weren't bothering you!"

McGonagall merely stared at each of them individually with another "death stare" before dragging them out of the Astronomy Tower, down the stairs, down hallways, and into her office, where she basically threw them into it.

"Thank you!" Sirius exclaimed, rubbing his arm.

"What did my elbow ever do to you?"

"Okay, this is your second warning. On your third, I will be forced to take you to Dumbledore, and send an owl to your parents. There will be twenty points EACH taken from Gryffindor for your actions today- and be thankful it's just that!" She added, when she saw the shocked looks of disbelief on the boys' faces.

"You will have detention every night this week starting tomorrow night. Show up at my office directly at seven o' clock- and no later, do you hear me?" McGonagall stated, firmly as ever. It looked like she didn't get out a lot. But that was just him.

"Detention with McGonagall for a week? It was harsh that one night!" James whispered into Sirius' ear.

"Tell me about it! You wouldn't believe how much gum is on the underside of ONE desk! And she made me scrape ALL of the gum offa each desk in the ENTIRE classroom WITHOUT magic!" he agreed, muttering into James' ear as inconspicuously as possible.

"Can we go now?" James asked, using a whiny voice.

"Yes- but don't even THINK of ditching detention, because punishment for that is even worse!" McGonagall threatened. Her mouth had formed a VERY thin line, and her dark eyes were narrowed with the silent promise they'd face her wrath if they were stupid enough to ditch. Which they obviously weren't.

"Leave. Go. Get out of my sight!" she burst out, staring at them with thunder in her eyes.

"Let's go, James!"

"Right behind you, Sirius!" James agreed, in a mad, panicked dash to get out of the classroom before McGonagall could do anything else to them- which she probably would if she got the chance.

Now that they were out of the Classroom Filled With Evil Things- as Sirius liked to call it, they both let out sighs of relief.

"We don't wanna mess with her temper," James said.

"No, really?"

"Let's get outta here! I don't even like being near her classroom!" James exclaimed, and making a run for it, they took off down some other corridor- as far away from her as they could get!

"Do you know where Remus is?"

"I dunno,"

"What do we do now?" Sirius asked.

"Um, I guess we could… sneak out to Hogsmeade! The first trip of the year was today, I think! No one'll notice!" James suggested.

"Sneak out to Hogsmeade? I've been to Hogsmeade before- it was really fun… but only if you SWEAR we won't get caught," Sirius agreed.

During this past summer, he had gone with 'Dromeda, Regulus, Bella, and Cissy. His aunt came with them to "supervise" but she really just came to get drunk at the Hogs Head. At least, she hadn't said that, but all of them had seen her "sneak" into the bar, and hadn't seen her come out until it was really, really, REALLY late.

He and 'Dromeda had snuck away from the rest and had had a blast going to Zonko's and visiting everything else there! He wondered vaguely if he and 'Dromeda would do that again sometime….

"Right now, I don't exactly want detention for the next month, because McGonagall would KILL us if she found out about it," Sirius stated.

"Yeah, I don't want her beady little eyes glaring at me every second of my life!"

"Okay, so are we gonna go? I don't think I know the exact way to Hogsmeade from school," Sirius asked.

"Yeah, let's go get my cloak from my trunk. And, all we really have to do is follow the other students out to Hogsmeade," James said, already heading towards the Gryffindor Tower. Sirius caught up to his side quickly.

"Do you think we'll get caught?"

"Nah, there's not much difference between a third year and a first year- there's quite a range of height in third years this year- so long as people don't ask many questions..." James trailed off, the look on his face a bit uncertain.

Finally arriving at the picture of the Fat Lady and saying the password, "_Hippogriff," _the two quickly dashed upstairs to their dorm and got the cloak out of James' trunk.

"Hey, look! Remus is asleep on his bed!" Sirius noticed out of the corner of his eye on their way out.

"He _has_ seemed kinda tired lately. I wonder why…" James said, trailing off again.

"Whatever. Let's go!" Sirius said, getting tired of standing in the dorm looking at Remus sleeping.

"OK," James stated, shrinking the cloak and putting it in his jeans pocket.

He and James left the dorm, but on their way out of the Common Room, they ran into Lily-what's-her-name and her group of friends- also on their way out. Sirius and James reached the exit first, but after each group stared at each other for a few minutes before Sirius finally said, "Uh, hi! I don't think we've officially met. I'm Sirius, and this is James,"

"Oh, we know who you are," Lily-what's-her-name said in a- did he imagine it?- cold tone.

"We saw why Gryffindor got forty points taken away from them today," a friend of Lily's spoke up. He didn't know her name yet….

"You know, when someone introduces themselves to you, it's polite to introduce yourselves back," Sirius stated, in a somewhat-fake polite attitude. Hey, if they wanted to be unreasonably hostile, so could he! Wait, where was James? Glancing at him, Sirius realized he was staring at Lily What's-her-name. AGAIN.

After a moment's hesitation, Lily finally spoke again, "I'm Lily Evans, this is Mary Nordolph," she gestured to the one with curly hair next to her. "This is Alice Devina," she pointed to a friendly looking girl- come to think of it, the ONLY friendly looking girl in Lily Evans group. "And finally, this is Lindsey Hall,"

"Funny, I've heard the name 'Hall' before," he said, looking at Lindsey thoughtfully.

Lindsey had wavy, shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes, looked about 4 "8" in height, and lightly tanned skin, and seemed to be the second-friendliest out of the group. She was wearing a loose black t-shirt that said, "ROCK ON" in blue spray paint, with short jean shorts, and flip flops.

Wait a second… Hall- that was a pureblood name! He vaguely remembered having a Hall family over for a few dinners one year. The family wasn't that nice, though come to think of it, most pureblood families weren't that nice anyways….

"It's also polite not to stare and to let Ladies go first," Lily said- and this time, the fake-politeness was obvious.

This one was too good to pass up. "Too bad you're not ladies," he smirked.

"Where are you going? To get Gryffindor in more trouble?" Mary asked, sarcastically.

"Where we go and what we do is none of your business," James burst out, suddenly.

"Exactly, so we'll leave you in peace now," Sirius added, moving closer to the exit- with James right behind him.

* * *

"They're going to get themselves into MORE trouble," Lindsey said, after they had left.

"Which is why we should follow them and see where they're going," Lily stated, staring at the exit.

"Please. All you want to know is why James Potter was staring at you," Alice teased, speaking up for the first timed.

"That's NOT true, and anyways, if we are going to follow them, we should probably get going so we won't lose track of them so quickly," Lindsey advised.

"OK, let's go," Mary said, and the four girls left the Common Room, hoping no one had overheard their conversation.

Lily was the first one to exit, so she was the first one to see that James and Sirius had vanished! Well, they weren't anywhere close to the picture of the Fat Lady, where they should've been if they'd left the Common Room when they had.

"How'd they do that?" Lily asked, her eyes wide with wonder. Whatever thoughts she was going to think next were interrupted when Lindsey said,

"Girl, move over!"

Jumping in surprise, Lily DID move. "Where are they? They can't be too far from the Common Room," Lindsey asked.

"That's what I was wondering myself- oh, you'd better get out of the way so Mary can come through," Lily told her.

"Where do you think they went?" Alice asked.

"I dunno. They just… weren't there when I came out," Lily replied, confused as ever.

"Now what do we do?" Mary questioned.

"What we were going to do before we ran into them," Lindsey suggested.

"Right. I'm going to go to the library to look up books for our homework. Does anyone want to come with me?" Lily asked, looking at her friends.

"I will," Mary agreed.

"I already finished it. I think I might go mingle," Lindsey said.

"We're not at a party," Alice pointed out.

"So? I'm just gonna go meet some new people and get the low-down on everyone here. Wanna come with me, Alice?" she asked.

"Sure!" Alice agreed, looking excited.

"Let's go then!" Lindsey and Alice linked arms and headed outside cheerfully to talk with the other Gryffindors about who knows what.

* * *

"Did you see the looks on those girls' faces when they realized we weren't there?" Sirius asked James with a grin on his face.

"They were completely clueless!" James agreed- but they had to stop laughing because some students passed by them, and they were under their cloak on their way to Hogsmeade. So instead, they laughed silently, unable to control themselves.

"So how DO you know the way to Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked, curiously.

"Oh, uh, I don't,"

"You DON'T?! Then how are we gonna get there?!" he exploded- in a whisper. Fortunately for James, there were still people around to hear him scream.

"I was hoping you'd know," James said, shrugging sheepishly.

"Oh my God," Sirius muttered, slapping his hand on his forehead.

"Hey, look! Some fourth years- they might be going to Hogsmeade!" James pointed, looking at a couple.

"Fine, let's go see where they're headed," Sirius muttered, annoyed. This was SO not worth it!!

"We have to get this out of the way now, so when we do it again, we'll know where to go," James pointed out.

"Oh, sure. You choose now to be reasonable," he argued, sarcastically.

"Let's go! They're getting away!" James whispered, anxiously jumping up and down in anticipation.

"Have you ever actually _been_ to Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked, curiously.

"Not really. I wanted to go with you because, well, I thought it'd be fun to go with you," James admitted, sheepishly.

"Fine, cut the sap and let's go," he grumbled, stalking over to the fourth years with James by his side.

"Where are we going to go first?" the girl was saying.

"I was thinking Zonko's, and then maybe we'll stop at someplace you want to go to, and get some butterbeer later," the boy answered, throwing his arm around the girl's waist.

"And after that?" the girl inquired.

"That's all up to you," the boy replied, beaming at her. The couple was heading outside, so he and James made their way towards the doors. Soon enough, they were outside in the warm autumn air, and Sirius noticed there was a cool breeze blowing.

"This is disgusting," he whispered.

"Tell me about it," James agreed, wrinkling his nose in disgust as they heard the two flirt with each other. But secretly, he thought James was lying and secretly taking notes to use it with that Lily girl later. He didn't say anything, though.

"Could this couple walk any slower?" James whined. "I'd like to get there before I turn a hundred,"

He nodded in silent agreement. Suddenly, he spotted something. "Hey, James, do you see that?"

"Yeah, I think it's Hogsmeade! Come on- let's leave 'em in the dust!" James exclaimed, breaking into a run. Which is hard to do in an Invisibility Cloak with two people in it without getting spotted.

"James, slow down! They'll see us!" Sirius warned, but in reality, he was enjoying the thrill of sneaking around as much as James was.

"Fine. We're almost there, anyways," James muttered, slowing down.

"Wow," he head James mutter. He supposed it _was_ impressive the first time you saw it- not like Hogwarts, but it was still neat.

Hogsmeade had little shops everywhere, with a couple bars here and there. The shops had signs that had "SPECIAL FALL SALE" written on it, with little autumn and Halloween decorations on the front of their shop. There were a few houses, but they were on a separate road- not on the main road where everything else was.

What made it really amazing were the way people were in the streets, talking and laughing with their friends (with old people chasing kids off their lawn, yelling, "YOU ROTTEN KIDS" after them) - that just made it seem so… alive, so real. Kind of like Diagon Ally, but like in a different time, in a different world altogether.

"Are we just going to stand here all day and stare at it, or are we going to do something?" James prompted Sirius, giving him a little nudge towards Zonko's. "Honestly, you say you've been here before," James muttered under his breath- rolling his eyes in the process.

"What if someone recognizes us?" Sirius whispered, anxiously.

"They won't, trust me,"

They entered the prank store with a sense of eagerness that only true, real pranksters can feel. The shopkeeper glanced up as the door opened seemingly by itself, but shrugged, going back to his work. Sighing in relief that the shopkeeper hadn't looked twice at the door, they walked carefully down an aisle where no one else was nearby. Making sure no one was watching (and double checking), James threw the cloak off of them.

"Now, let's buy some supplies!" James grinned, and began riffling through the things on the shelves. It was actually unorganized, with stuff thrown all over the place- but that was what made it so cool!

"I could be here all day!" he head James mutter excitedly to himself.

Rolling his eyes, he began looking through the stuff he'd want to try out. Sirius recognized a few things, like dungbombs, and he saw a laser. OOH, a laser! Sirius snatched it up eagerly- before James could get his hands on it.

"Any luck, Sirius?" James asked him.

"Yeah! You?" he replied, glancing over at James. He immediately wished he hadn't, though. James had armfuls of pranking supplies- he must've cleared out a lot of shelves!

"Do you really have the money to pay for all that?"

"You sound like my mother. YES, I do, mummy," James teased. It was hard to see his face because of the stuff he was carrying, so he couldn't read his expression that well.

"I need a bag," James muttered, walking along the floor- amazingly searching for MORE stuff to add to his collection.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to go get some butterbeer. Wanna come?" he asked. He already had a bunch of stuff, and he WAS trying to save money at the moment… he couldn't wait to use that laser, though!

"No thanks, I'm gonna look around some more- you never know what you might find in here!" James replied, glancing at him briefly before returning back to his "supply hunting" as James liked to call it.

So, after Sirius paid for the stuff- luckily, the shopkeeper didn't notice anything about his age, and if he did, he didn't say anything- he made sure no teachers were around, and left the store as inconspicuously as possible. Well, he _was_ good at sneaking and looking invisible (not causing too much attention and not getting many people to notice you're in the same room with them). At least he was when he wanted to be!

Coming up to a candy shop, Sirius thought he might go in there for a bit and snack on some candy while he ate his butterbeer. He wondered what cookies tasted like when they're dipped in butterbeer, so he decided to buy a couple of cookies and a lollipop.

Leaving the store, Sirius decided to hum to the Muggle song (don't ask him where he heard it, because he honestly didn't know) _I Love Rock n Roll_ by Queen- although he honestly didn't know how they came up with that band name. _Muggles have really_ _strange band names,_ he thought to himself.

In five minutes, Sirius was sitting in a booth dipping his cookies in butterbeer, singing _I Love Rock n Roll_ in his head and swinging his legs under the table. Yummmm, this was definitely a good match! Suddenly, something caught his eye. It was a person- a girl- but a girl that was too young to be in Hogsmeade… well, he supposed he shouldn't be the one talking, but still, it made Sirius curious as to who he thought she was.

Leaving his halfway empty beer cup, Sirius moved closer to the girl- and yes- it was her- Andromeda! What was she doing here? He didn't see any other Slytherins she might be with- including his devil cousins Bella and Cissy. Oh, how he hated Bella! Sirius could go on and on and on and on and on about how evil Bella was.

Cissy was okay if you were alone with her and she wasn't pressured into being a complete "Muggle-hater snob" like she was whenever other Slytherins were around. Sirius was sure that would change as she got older, though. You never stayed nice in Slytherin for long (Except if you're 'Dromeda), no matter how old you get.

"Psst! 'Dromeda!" he whispered, not wanting to attract that much attention, because if it hadn't sunk in already, NEITHER OF THEM WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HERE! And James, who was probably going insane at Zonko's right now. He pitied that shopkeeper.

'Dromeda looked over at him, and looking surprised (in the good way) she carefully stepped around some people in her way, and in no time at all, was in right front of him.

"Hi!" she said, smiling at Sirius.

"Hey," They both stared at each other for a few seconds before they both blurted out simultaneously,

"What are you doing here?!"

* * *

Sorry about that cliffie, but it really was the best place to end it without going ON and ON and ON, if you know what I mean, lol!!

Again, remember to R&R please!


	5. What Can Happen at Hogsmeade

Hey! Sorry for the long wait for the update... actually, this is one of the quicker ones for me come to think of it. This chapter isn't as long as some of the others, but I hope you guys like it!!

Thanks for those who found the time to answer my questions and pleas for help...

(disclaimer: i don't own HP. you think they'dve figured that out by now :P)

* * *

"_What are you doing here?!"_

Both letting out slightly nervous laughs, he said, "You first,"

"Well, Bella and Cissy-," Dromeda started to say, but she was cut off.

"Could we PLEASE not call Cissy that? It just… feels, weird," Sirius complained.

"Fine," she agreed, rolling her eyes at him. "Anyways, Bella and _Narcissa_ wanted to go to Hogsmeade- I tried telling them it wasn't worth it, but they wouldn't listen- and they made me come along because they were afraid I'd rat them out to Slughorn,"

"Where are they now?"

"At a clothing store -that's right, you guessed it- shopping. You wouldn't BELIEVE how much time they spend trying on clothes AND how much money they have," Dromeda replied, exasperatedly. "Anyways, I got bored of trying on clothes, and decided sneak over here for a butterbeer or two,"

"Figures," Sirius muttered. Typical of his cousins to go STRAIT to a shop filled with… CLOTHES. He absolutely _hated_ going along with girls to get clothes- they seriously took FOREVER! They go in and never come out unless you drag them out, and even then they go unwillingly!

"SOOOOOOOO, why are YOU here?" Dromeda asked, casually.

"Uh, I wanted to get some things from Zonko's," he replied, uneasily. He didn't want to let her know James was here- he had a feeling James wouldn't like it that much if he told anyone- even the nice cousin- they were here.

"And you came by yourself?" She inquired, looking disbelieving as ever.

"Yep!"

"I'm not an idiot- I heard about that stunt you and James did over the Astronomy tower this morning,"

"Oh, and what about it? Did you get sick of Bella complaining on how the water balloon messed up her hair?" he smirked at her, knowingly.

"Well, sick of the ranting actually. I'd be on my toes if I were you," his cousin warned.

"Thanks for the warning, but it was SO worth it!" Sirius said, grinning.

"AND I know it was you who pulled that dungbomb prank the other day in the Transfiguration Hallway," Andromeda said, smirking.

Sirius' eyes widened and his jaw dropped in surprise at this knowledge. "How'd you- I don't know what you're talking about!" He saved himself just in time- _please let it go, please let it go, please let it go, please let it-_

"Fine, whatever you say, Prank Boy," Andromeda rolled her eyes.

_THANK YOU!!_ "Do you want to go sit down with me?" he asked.

"Um, sure! That sounds a lot better than going back to Bella and Cissy!" she looked uncertain and surprised when she said that, but in the good way.

After Dromeda bought a butterbeer, Sirius led her to the table where he was sitting at, and they sat down across from each other comfortably. Feeling suddenly thirsty, he quickly got a refill for his butterbeer, and drank from it greedily.

Andromeda was watching him with amusement, and he paused for a moment to look at her.

"What?" he asked, not understanding what was so funny to begin with.

"Oh, nothing," she said, smirking at him now.

Choosing to let it go, Sirius pulled a (still warm so that the chocolate chips were still melty) chocolate chip cookie out of the bag next to him and held it out to Andromeda.

"Cookie?" Sirius offered. "They taste really good dipped in butterbeer!"

She giggled, a smile playing on her lips. "Sure!" Dromeda said, accepting the cookie. "Yum, these are really good!" she said, munching on the cookie.

"Thanks!"

They ate their food in a comfortable silence, only broken when Dromeda asked for another cookie, which Sirius graciously gave to her.

As they finished the last of the cookies and finished up their drinks, his cousin smiled and said, "Thanks for the cookies. I had a nice time,"

"Me too,"

"So,"

"Soooo…"

"Do you wish you hadn't been placed in Slytherin?" he asked, suddenly.

Dromeda looked surprised by the question, but closing her eyes while thinking, she replied slowly- choosing her words carefully.

"Yes… and no. I don't have to deal with any family stuff -sorry- like you'll probably have to. Most of the people placed in Slytherin are low-life cheating scum (or end up to be), and I'm afraid I might turn out like that. Yes because I'll always be labeled as one of the "pureblood freaks" even if I tell them I don't believe in that stuff a thousand times over. I'll always have to hang out with my cousins and I'll never have a chance to make real friends at Hogwarts now,"

"Clearly you've been thinking about this," Sirius stated, kind of unsure on how to reply.

Dromeda smiled weakly. "Yeah. Once I almost asked Dumbledore if I could be resorted into a house that wasn't Slytherin,"

"Why didn't you? Gryffindor would've welcomed you. Well, I would have anyways,"

She shrugged. "I guess I was afraid of what would happen had I not been in Slytherin- what would've happened to me. I don't know, really. What's done is done, I guess,"

"Oh. Okay then," Sirius said, definitely not knowing how to reply to this one either, but feeling strangely disappointed she wasn't a Gryffindor and wasn't going to do anything about it.

"Well… I'd better be getting back to Bella and Cissy. They'll be wondering where I'm at right now," she said, standing up. He stood up too, and Sirius wondered vaguely when it had gotten awkward.

Coughing loudly, he opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. For some reason, his stomach was squirming uncomfortably, and Sirius was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the food he had eaten earlier.

"Um, thanks again Sirius. I had a good time," Dromeda said, looking at him- but there was some level of uncertainty on her face. He wasn't sure what it was, exactly- but there was definitely some tension that hadn't been there before.

"I'll see you around," Dromeda smiled at him once more before she got up and left the restaurant.

"Yeah, you too!" Sirius called after her. He stared at the exit for a few minutes after she had gone, thinking about her.

Suddenly remembering James at Zonko's with a jolt, Sirius left a tip for the waitress, and raced out of the shop and (dodging around other people) went into Zonko's. Breathing hard from the dash, Sirius nodded to the shopkeeper who said in a bored tone, "the kid's in the back."

"Thanks!" he said, his heart filled with relief that James was still here.

Moving towards the back of the store, he caught sight of messy black hair behind a shelf.

"Hey James!" Sirius called out.

"Sirius? Is that you?" James called back. His voice sounded a bit muffled.

"Yep!"

"Great! Can you help me carry all this stuff to the front so I can buy it?" James asked, panting a bit from holding all that stuff for so long.

"Uh, I guess so," Sirius replied, moving to where James was, but then stopped in shock at the sight of his friend. James had four bags full of supplies, and had a lot of stuff that he was holding in his arms!

"Holy crap James! That's a LOT of stuff!"

"I know, right? With my stuff and your stuff combined, we should have loads of fun with this!"

"Don't you have a bunch of stuff in our dorm?"

"Yep, but none of it's from Zonko's! Here's a couple bags of unpaid stuff," James told him, heaving two heavy bags onto him. Sirius staggered a bit under the weight, but soon got control of it.

"You ready?" James asked as they moved towards the front of the store.

Sirius was concentrating on keeping the heavy bags in his hands, so he could only nod in response.

Dragging the bags to the front, the clerk behind the desk looked surprised as he and James dropped the stuff onto the counter. Squinting at the two, the clerk said in the same bored tone, "Aren't you two a little young to be in Hogsmeade?"

"We're third years! We're just a bit short. My mum and dad were never that tall, and I'm assuming my buddy's the same, right?" James said indignantly, and throwing an arm around Sirius, who nodded (what he hoped was a convincing nod).

"Whatever," he said, and rang up the total, looking bored as ever.

"Forty-five galleons, 10 sickles, and 5 knuts,"

Sirius and James' jaw dropped, and James exclaimed, "WHAT?! Are you INSANE?!"

The bored shopkeeper –looking unperturbed from James' outburst- rolled his eyes and said, "Either pay and take the stuff, don't take the stuff, or I'm calling security,"

James narrowed his eyes angrily, but glaring at the man as he spoke it said, "Fine," and reaching for his money bag, opened it up and counted out the right amount of money.

"Geez, are you really gonna spend all that money on this?" Sirius asked, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Yep! And I still have money left over," James added after he saw the look in Sirius' eyes.

"It's your money," Sirius shrugged; deep down knowing it wasn't any of his business how James Potter spent his money.

James nodded in thanks, glowering at the clerk on his way out of the store.

"OK, now where to?" James asked.

"Honeydukes?" Sirius suggested.

"Cool! Just a moment though," James paused, and he shrunk his Zonko's bags to fit in his pocket.

"Don't you think it's a little weird that there're no teachers here?" Sirius asked curiously as they made their way to the candy shop.

"Yeah, kinda. But I'll bet most of them are giving detention, planning the worst way to punish a student in detention, or making up horrendous homework assignments for next week,"

"Good point," Sirius agreed, seeing his friends logic.

"And here we are!" he announced as they entered Honeydukes.

"Wow!" James exclaimed, his whole face showing admiration for the glamorous candy store.

There were all sorts of candy and sugary treats everywhere! They were lined up along shelves, on tables, and the baked goods were in a glass case (that probably had a heater in it to keep everything fresh and warm).

The smell hit their noses immediately. It smelled… like heaven, was the best way to describe it. The cookies, muffins, and other baked goods made the shop smell warm and inviting, while the other candies made it smell like, well, heaven. The people that had crowded into the store helped make it seem inviting, too.

"I want a lollipop," James spoke, immediately going over to the lollipop section.

"I'd like some more chocolate chip cookies," Sirius muttered to himself. He had always had a thing for chocolate chip cookies. God, he loved those cookies.

Pushing through the crowd, he made it to the front where the baked goods were, and asked for five chocolate chip cookies.

"Here you go!" the (female) employee chirped, handing the cookie bags to Sirius after he paid for them.

"Thanks!" he said, smiling up at her.

The girl nodded, and he turned around to look for some more treats, when James came up to him with a panicked look in his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked, bracing himself for whatever bad thing that was going to happen.

"Professor McGonagall- she's here! Right across the street!" James pointed, his eyes bulging with panic.

"Oh, shit! We'd better get out of here! Come on- let's get under the cloak," Sirius exclaimed, seeing McGonagall out the window right before he ducked under it.

"OK, is anyone looking?" James asked, glancing around the store.

"No, everyone's looking at a couple of first years disguised as third years who snuck into Hogsmeade," Sirius said, sarcastically.

"Seriously, Sirius," James said, looking a bit annoyed before he realized the bad pun.

"Ha ha," he stated, sarcastically. After James glared at him, Sirius DID check around to look and see if anyone was looking at them. No one was. "Coast is clear, James,"

"OK, in three, two, one, NOW!" James whispered and quickly threw the cloak over them.

"Do you think anyone noticed?" Sirius asked, getting a little paranoid now. Any witnesses were unnecessary and unwanted.

"Nope!" James muttered, letting out a sigh of relief. "Come on- we'd better get back to the school before anyone notices we're gone," he said.

"Good idea," Sirius agreed, and they swiftly headed for the door, their hearts beating a mile per second, praying McGonagall wouldn't look at Honeydukes- even if they had the cover of the cloak.

Just as they were out the door, Sirius just happened to trip on the cloak, sending them both flying onto the ground.

"Sirius!!" James complained, glaring fiercely at him through his hazel eyes.

"Sorry," he muttered, a bit embarrassed.

"Do you WANT to get caught by McGonagall AGAIN?! She'd probably rip our throats out and feed them to dogs!" James whispered, furiously.

"I said I was sorry! Can we just get back to Hogwarts already?" Sirius whispered back, a little annoyed now.

"Fine, let's go," James said, keeping his straight ahead on the path in front of him.

Biting his lip, Sirius walked with him in an awkward silence, broken when he said, in an attempt to break the silence asked James, "So what are we going to do with the stuff we got from Zonko's?"

James glanced at him sideways, and replied, "We'll have to plan it all out- but it'll be so much fun! I can't wait to start it!"

"Yeah- but the detention with McGonagall sucks. She's a real killjoy," Sirius agreed.

"I agree with you on that one. But I suppose all teachers are like that, right?"

"No doubt about it. So who should our next victim be? It's your turn to choose- I chose Bellatrix, and now you get to pick a victim,"

"Ok, then," James paused for a moment, his eyes narrowed in concentration. "How about that greasy haired kid in Slytherin who was hanging around that red head girl -Lily Evans- the other day?" he suggested.

"Sounds good to me! Whatever it's gonna be, it should be really humiliating,"

"Yep! So when's our detention with the Evil Witch?" James asked.

"Um, I think she said it starts tomorrow night at seven PM and lasts all week," Sirius said, squinting his eyes as he tried to remember.

"Great- we can plan it tomorrow and launch it next week! Hopefully they won't know it was us when we do whatever it is we're going to do to that creep,"

As they were walking, talking, planning, and plotting, they reached the school before they knew it. Despite the invisible protection of the cloak, he and James both let out sighs of relief as they entered their beloved school from under the cloak.

"OK, let's go to the Common Room first to take off the cloak, and then we can go do whatever," James suggested.

"We're in the school now- why do we have to bother with the cloak?" Sirius complained.

"Do you want to be stuck answering questions like 'where were you guys?' or 'what were you two doing earlier?'" James replied, looking at him.

Sirius realized the point James had, and his mouth formed a silent 'O' of realization.

Since the halls were mostly abandoned except for the occasional student, (most people were probably outside, enjoying the last few days of warmth), Sirius and James broke into a run towards the Common Room, only taking a few wrong turns in the process- which in retrospect, was quite an improvement from their first couple of days at Hogwarts.

Arriving at the picture of the Fat Lady, Sirius and James threw the cloak off, both breathing heavily from their run to the Common Room. The Fat Lady's eyes widened when she saw that, but all she said was,

"Password?"

* * *

I think this was maybe a filler chapter. Ugh, I'm sick of those, and I'm sure you guys are too, but the next chapter will be a bit more exciting than this, I promise!!


End file.
